Simultaneously, America has turned on Fox News, tuned into the Republican talking points and dropped out of being well informed about political issues.
When the USA bombs Libya constantly for more than four months to protect its citizens from their leader of forty years at the same time that the President turns his back on the Syrians who are being shot down like rabid dogs in the street, no responsible political pundit takes notice of the dichotomy.
Why should they? Aren't they being paid to reassure the voters that the radioactive sites in Japan, the economic turmoil, the endless wars, the unexplainable election upsets, and the rapidly dwindling 401K accounts are no cause for alarm? Chill out, dude! You're just having a bad trip.
After seeing "Magic Trip," we went to the Berkeley Public Library and borrowed a copy of Tom Wolfe's book, "The Elecgtric Cool-aid Acid Test," which was about what happened to Kesey's posse
The book is highly regarded as a pioneering example of gonzo journalism, which was the label given to the trend in journalism whereby the writers injected themselves into the story they were covering. From the vantage point of more than forty years later, the tone of the beginning of the book is more like a sales pitch at the entrance of a freak show. Wolfe provides the ordinary folk with an alter ego for a journey into the land of pathetic drug fiends.
Will he actually drop acid later in the book? Perhaps, as the long hot summer of 2011 continues to play out, we will have a chance to finish reading the Acid Test book and write a column on its efforts to be a valid example of gonzo journalism.
Wolfe's newspaper article and subsequent book anointed the Merry Pranksters to a high level of fame and notoriety. Perhaps with some lucrative book deals some influential future historians will be able to depict the summer of 2011 as a time full of warm and fuzzy sentimentality when folks walked out of their recently foreclosed homes and went off in search of their inner Woody Guthrie?
Wasn't the Great Depression chock full of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies, Amos "n' Andy radio shows, and Black Mask magazines that were just so much fun? Won't the future look back at this summer with so much envy because they will have to settle for a vicarious participation in the antics?
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