This piece is about inequality and application of certain aspects of our society. And how when it is money it is looked at differently than it would be if someone behaves in the same way only they have some pull either politically or financially. The Kennedy's and Bush's are a prime example of how money does what it pleases and gets away with whatever the crime. Both sides of the aisle... this is a bi-partisan issue.

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"In 18th-century England, the king and half his ministers were involved in a whole network of strange and violent sex clubs, whipping parlors and half-secret cults that embraced everything from Satanism and human sacrifice to flagrant white slavery and public bestiality.

"In the early years of the century, there were a large number of 'Rakes' Clubs' in London, where the high point of most evenings was hitting the streets in a drunken, brainless frenzy and raping, beating and maiming every human being they could get their hands on."

-Hunter S. Thompson ('The Hellfire Club' -- 'Generation of Swine: Gonzo Papers Vol. 2: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80's')

Last night (Friday, February 8, 2013) I walked up to Piedmont and Bancroft, near some of the Frats, and listened.  I watched and I listened.  And what I saw and heard doesn't shock me.  Drunken college kids is nothing new.  Hell, I am not even frowning on the behavior.  It's a way to blow off steam.  There are kids this age dying for your "freedoms" halfway around the planet.  However, when one set of kids are targeted for partying, illegally, then so should the other.  Now I am sure there are "of-age" students at these parties, but I also imagine there are plenty of underage kids at those parties as well.  And the reason you are going to delineate between the street kids and those wealthy college students is because...?  Oh, money.  It's always money.

Class, rather.  And let's examine the difference in the two groups.  On one side, the street kid side, you have kids who have been tossed away, sexually abused, physically abused, emotionally abused, some of which are extremely mentally handicapped.  Sure, not all of them are abuse victims.  Enough of them, though, have never seen anything except instability and constant transition to "normalcy."  They never get there because their view is opposite the lesson being taught. 

Again, the Master points his finger at the moon and the Fool looks at his finger.

On the other side of this debate you have kids with more privilege.  Now, I am not saying they are all monsters because of this fact.  I am merely pointing out the dichotomy of the situation.  The message here is to point to the disparity of application and the reason for that discrepancy.  And I am not attempting to start trouble between these classes.  I am merely pointing out what I see.  Again, perception is reality.  If we are to bridge that gap we are going to have to make real efforts in doing so.

One side has a place they can perform their debauchery and the other does not.  One side has the money to control the language; and if you control the language, you control the content; and if you control the content, you control it all; and if you control it all, you employ police as babysitters.  The police are the ultimate middlemen (and 'middlewomen') in this entire Farce.  They are pitted against both sides.  They are told to look the other way on some things and to accentuate on other behaviors, allegedly. 

Partay.... if you're white and privileged by davitydave

Application of the law, in this fashion, only exacerbates an already problematic situation.  On one hand you have wealthy kids promoting and financially supporting illegal parties, but since their parents have influence... since their parents are the Aristocracy, there's a moderate eye, at best, watching all of it.  More like a babysitter who picks up the messes and only punishes (or incarcerates) if the situation rises to a certain level.  I guess that's fair.  I guess that's what they're (City Hall) doing with the street kids.  Only with the street kids there is a moral application. 

So, money does not have to abide by the same moral codes? 

"'Thank you, Mr. Chinanski, for speaking to us . . .'

'Sure . . .'

Then Jon Pinchot  was there.  'Hello, Sarah, hello, Hank . . .

Follow me . . .'

There was a small group with cassette recorders.  Some flashbulbs went off.  I didn't know who they were.  They began asking questions.

'Do you think drinking should be glorified?'

'No more than anything else . . .'

'Isn't drinking a disease?'

'Breathing is a disease.'

'Don't you find drunks obnoxious?'

'Yes, most of them are.  So are most teetotalers.'

'But who would be interested in the life of a drunk?'

'Anther drunk.'

'Do you consider heavy drinking to be socially acceptable?'

'In Beverly Hills, yes.  On skid row, no.'

'Have you "gone Hollywood"?'

'I don't think so.'

'Why did you write this movie?'

'When I write something I never think about why.'"

-Charles Bukowksi (as 'Henry Chinanski' in 'Hollywood').

I like the line, "In Beverly Hills, yes.  On skid row, no."  Referring to the question, "Do you consider heavy drinking to be socially acceptable."  There is Truth in those words. 

When the city was trying to make sitting on the sidewalk a crime, I remember reading the "reasons" for wanting to do so.  One of those excuses was that people would come from out of town, like Walnut Creek, and they would "feel nervous" when they came around the street kids.  Okay, for one... maybe they should interact with people more.  Maybe they should get out of their gated communities and live a little.  Maybe they should adapt to life in the city, not the other way around.  Another problem I have with this (self-righteous) mentality is, it's a Lie.

That's the biggest joke of all. 

I felt more fear up in that neighborhood watching drunks drive around trying to start fights with whoever was dumb enough to take the bait.  I could hear the sounds of guys pestering half-naked girls for a night they'd regret the rest of their lives.  All to the horror of the women, mind you.  Not that they weren't trying to attract something, just not that.  This is not me blaming anyone for any behavior... unless it's the behavior of those enabling one side over another.  Unless it's one side -- our side -- getting the morality play, while the other side -- the money side -- gets pampered and cleaned up.  Then I am.

"These were not lower class thugs, as in Clockwork Orange, but the sons of the aristocracy.  There was no law for them.  Only the rich and powerful were allowed to carry swords or ride horses--which put the poor at a certain disadvantage when gangs of rich drunkards swooped down on them in some dim-lit street after midnight. . . ."

-Hunter S. Thompson ('The Hellfire Club' -- 'Generation of Swine: Gonzo Papers Vol. 2: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80's')

On more than one occasion in this town I have seen too many police cars running into a situation where some college party got out of hand.  How many rapes go unreported or get outright squashed because of the lineage of the accused.  We've seen cases with football players.  We've seen cases with high-ranking public officials.  Yet, if a poor street kid farts cigarette smoke, they are vilified and accused of not only causing the financial Armageddon of all the businesses in this town but the continual cause of that doomsday excuse.

"By the second half of the century, there was a whole focus for the gentleman's clubs--the worship of sex and extravagant public decadence.  This was the time of the infamous Hellfire Club, which included among its inner circle the Prince of Wales, the Lord Mayor of London, Benjamin Franklin, the crazed Earl of Sandwich, the monstrous Earl of Bute, then prime minister of England.

"These people didn't fool around.  They raised the orgy to an art form unknown since Caligula or even the fiendish Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan, who begat a long line of rapists and treacherous sex maniacs who were said to lament the fact that the human body had so few orifices to penetrate that they were forced to create new ones with their own daggers in order that the whole clan could swarm on a victim at once."

-Hunter S. Thompson ('The Hellfire Club' -- 'Generation of Swine: Gonzo Papers Vol. 2: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80's')

Are these street kids perfect little saints?  No.  That is not my message to the reader.  My message to the reader is there are two rules of thought and application going on here.  Just like those who control it all, they tell us all how to live and think.  They push us around like chess pieces.  They divide us into groups and then pit us against each other.  They tell us all they have our best interests in mind, as they wrench your arm a little more behind your neck, as you cry for mercy, yet are given none... the beat goes on.... 

Think Pai Mei and Beatrix Kiddo only Pai Mei doesn't relent, he instead pushes through. 

"Dilettantes like Hart, Bakker and Swaggart would have been turned away at the door of the Hellfire Club, rejected as humorless churls and cheap masturbators. . . ."

-Hunter S. Thompson ('The Hellfire Club' -- 'Generation of Swine: Gonzo Papers Vol. 2: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80's')

-James Richard Armstrong II

Authors Bio:
I'm a homeless student, writer, and activist... currently panhandling my way through school (and life.).