Sobering Thoughts

My first time through Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 cannot fairly be classified as a reading. It was more like the first time you got a glimpse of pornographic material- you don’t really remember what you saw and you didn’t exactly understand what you had just seen but it was pretty damn intoxicating and you couldn’t believe something like that existed. For those of you who are a little lost here, you need to know Hunter Thompson was a journalist and a substance addict whose paths were eternally linked. His reports were not merely recants of certain events but rather tales of his exploits trying to cover whatever story he was assigned to. He was a brilliant madman, and that wasn’t hard to witness from his prose.

That’s why this book, or any of his writing for that matter, is a little mesmerizing at first glance. It’s like a trip inside a political funhouse, where fact and fiction is blended and the line between them is blurred.

This is why I had to sit down a second time with this book. I needed to get past all the smoke and mirrors and see what he really had to say, what he really was talking about on all those pages. After all, Frank Mankiewicz, the campaign director for eventual Democratic nominee George McGovern, stated that this book was the “most accurate and least factual account of the campaign." That statement is confusing too but a prime example of this logic is when Thompson attributed one of the candidate’s erratic behaviors to a secret drug addiction. When describing the politician’s actions he would explain why they were out of sorts and point out where the drug was affecting him. While the addiction part was not true, the questionable decision-making was occurring; Thompson just decided to put his comedic twist on it. That is what distinguished his work from the bland recounts that the regular reporters filed each day in the newspapers.

Now I’ve explained all this nonsense because I’m trying to get somewhere and the funny part is it isn’t even something Thompson wrote. See, due to his questionable lifestyle decisions, he sometimes did not make his writing deadlines. In fact, he was notorious for this but what he did manage to produce was so captivating that the editors would put up with his shenanigans. In one section of the text, he explains that he is just plain exhausted and he lets his fellow correspondent at Rolling Stone (the magazine had sent them to cover the campaign) finish the rehash of that month’s events and outcomes. The writer, Tim Crouse, filed a more traditional story. Absent were the absurdities and personal opinions that Thompson littered his pages with, and it was definitely less entertaining. It dealt with McGovern’s win in the Wisconsin primary and included a section where he had interviewed all the young volunteers who had been vital to the grassroots effort that boosted the candidate to victory.

The kids, all college age, were riding an evident high that was partly due to the victory-party booze and partly due to the realization that they had just made a difference. McGovern was an underdog in the state, in the entire race in general, and Wisconsin became a turning point for him that eventually propelled him into the National Election.

When asked about their reasons for participating the consensus was that most of them were unhappy with the country’s current leadership and wanted a change; Nixon was in the White House at the time, in the thick of the Vietnam conflict. How many of us today have ever said to each other that we are unhappy with the current leadership, and we fervently want a change. Sure a lot of people agree that George Bush would without a doubt lose on “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader,” and that he is a pawn for the political powers in control, but how many times have you been sitting around with your friends discussing what needs to be done in this country. I know I have never done that, and I can only speak for myself, but I feel that this is something that is generally missing from our generation. We are completely detached from the political picture.

Some people want to say that it was the drugs, and those surely played a part, but back in “the day” there was an audible voice coming from college campuses all around. They had something to say about the current situation and they set out to make statements. They protested. Sure there was violence back then, but it had a purpose. Now we overturn cars in the parking lot just for pure enjoyment- each other’s cars. I mean if your intent on flipping something, at least have a reason for it. If you don’t like the way your university is handling an issue, go overturn all the cars at the Dean's office. Now that’s not a suggestion, just an example that is probably going to come back to haunt me.

Now before this gets too depressing and downright critical of our generation, we have to also talk about how this is not completely all our fault. Rolling Stone’s 40th anniversary edition recently hit newsstands and its core consisted of interviews with the feature players from the generation of the magazine’s emergence as a socially relevant voice. Rather than just a piece of entertainment, it became a vehicle for the liberal, sometimes radical, section of society to get some airtime. Some of it was relevant, and some of it was just the gibberish of the times.

George McGovern, Hunter’s old friend, was interviewed and he made a very interesting observation.

Interviewer: “You spend a lot of time speaking on college campuses. Are students different today than they were in the sixties?”

McGovern: “They have less faith in the political system changing
things, no matter how hard they work. In the sixties young people genuinely thought they could change the direction of the country- and to some extent were vindicated in that. But after the shooting of all these great leaders, the two Kennedys and Martin Luther King, and the overwhelming loss that I suffered in 1972, it became harder for young people to believe that intelligent political action can make a difference. But I still think it’s worth doing. At the very least, it keeps things from getting worse.”

We as students are continually bombarded with the idea that we are going to enter the real world, and it’s going to be a drag, so live it up in college. Go to spring weekend and get fall down drunk because come graduation time you’re going to hit that ground and you better start walking fast or find a sturdy card board box for shelter. We are basically told it is a tough world so deal with it, end of story. There doesn’t seem to be a visible window for change, to make a difference and make it a better place for ourselves.

Sure there are young people out there that are organizing, but I think on the broader picture, the voices in the magazine agree that the world has become stagnant; we have lost grasp with the possibility that the country could be the place that we want it to be. And why should we, after the re-election of a president that had the lowest approval ratings in history.

Now this thing is getting mighty preachy when all I set out to do was make an observation, so let’s try to wrap this up nice so we can all go home. To tell you the truth, I don’t really know what we should do, if it’s our fault, or who to blame. All I know is we need to look at our situation. “Question authority,” as all those aging hippies say.

Maybe what we lack is passion, that gut feeling of utter care for something, anything. Sure when the basketball team wins a championship we celebrate like uncaged animals- and it’s a hell of a good time- but that kind of energy should translate to anything in life that you care about. It’s just a matter of finding that object, that idea that strikes a chord.

Now I’m not saying you should set fire to your couch after acing your chemistry exam, I’m just saying that our generation just needs to keep thinking, talking, and discussing. Never get caught in that rut where the only thing that matters is getting that paycheck. Michael Moore, the gorilla with a video camera who seems to just set up his equipment wherever he can find controversy, actually makes a very interesting point. He explains, “There’s a reason credit-card companies are so prevalent on college campuses today. They hook students as early as possible. The more you’re in debt, the more you’re going to have to work at a job you don’t like to pay off your debt. It becomes a freedom-of-speech issue. You don’t dare organize on the job, because you need that job to pay off your debts. So you learn to look the other way and not say anything.”

While that’s another depressing thought, and I’m beginning to get myself depressed just writing about this, it also bears thinking about. It’s just a mindset that you never want to fall into. Looking the other way and not doing anything is just a step away from bondage. At that point we are just wage-slaves, there to make sure the country runs the way that the “appointed” leaders intend.

This brings me to my conclusion- fuck whitey. To clarify, I’m speaking of the old white haired men and women who amble their way through the doors of congress each day. To think that these people know what we as a youth group want for our future is like saying that every order Jack Bauer has received from headquarters is a correct one- breaking protocol is always wrong. We need to always have a visible opinion; sitting on the couch in front of the TV for the rest of our lives is just not an option. In the words of Buzz Lightyear, “Never give up, never surrender.”