It is habit for me to reflect on Hunter S. Thompson during this time of year. While most people tune into pre-season football to analyze their favorite team’s roster, or to hone their gambling instincts for the coming season. I watch that first kick off of the “hall of fame game” every year and pour myself a glass of Johnny Walker Black, then reflect on Hunter. You see the creator of “Gonzo Journalism” had become so despondent with life and the state of American culture that football had become the sole joy of his life . His escape. Every year after that final play Mr. Thompson would battle depression and struggle with life until the next season sprung a new and hope was reborn.
Hunter’s masterpiece was his novel “ Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”. The novel centers around how the American Dream had begun to cannibalize , and it’s self hate was destroying the very moral fabric which had created it’s culture to start with. During this year’s kickoff I couldn’t help but notice that this concept of Hunters seemed more relevant than usual. You see, even though America is not short of protagonists to blame; Iran, North Korea, BP, Wall Street, Bush, Islam. It is my contention that the real culprit for our current state of affairs is… us.
Despite what people will tell you, America was not born on morals and ideals. This country was spawned from the desire to succeed and a quest to excel. We didn’t fight the revolutionary war because we were appalled by Europe’s outdated ideals. We revolted because they taxed the colonies unfairly and were interfering with free trade. In other words they were interfering with the American dream. Recently that American dream has taken a u-turn. The country that once thrived on entrepreneurship and forward thinking, now has become an apologist for success. We don’t celebrate that we made the greatest Democracy on Earth, we dwell on the injustices to Native Americans and African Americans. The tales of WW2 do not rejoice on the liberation of Europe and the lives lost on foreign beaches. Now the articles center on relocating Asian Americans to camps and the necessity of dropping Atomic bombs on Imperial Japan. The United States is the the pretty prom queen in high school, who turned 40 and is going through mid life crisis. She can’t help thinking could have been nicer to the other girls in Biology lab.
Before I am accused of rambling here (which I probably am) let me get to the point. America feels guilt for being the sole super power and the world’s economic leader. We are the New York Yankees who suddenly feel it’s unfair to win because the have the highest payroll. Just look at the facts. Instead of allowing free thinking and ideas to lead us out of these economic times, we would rather question Bernake and Paulson on the Hill ad nauseam. No more looking forward, we just look back. Why look ahead when we can analyse the fucking flash crash for 12 months or decide whether Lindsey was misdiagnosed or not? It has made us numb as a people. To the point we can’t even make a rational decision as to where to build a mosque in Manhattan. We elected an unqualified President solely on his ability to calm the masses with a promise of change. Never thinking that his idea of solving our problem was to socialize ourselves into becoming the rest of the world. The pretty prom queen uglied herself up so she could be average and the rest of the girls wouldn’t hate her. The Yankees cut their payroll to the Pirates so it was an even playing field.
Back to Hunter S Thompson. You see politics are a lot like football. Every 2 and 4 years we get to start the season over. Right now we are between seasons. The time of year that made Hunter depressed. Ironically the man whose novel illustrated how the American culture was pointing a gun at itself, put a loaded shotgun in his mouth on Feb 20th a few years ago and pulled the trigger. A few short weeks after the super bowl ended. So when that first game starts in a few Sundays, most will be thinking about their teams, but I will be wondering about Hunter. What would have happened if he had held it together for a few more months. What great works would he have had to offer if football had come a few months earlier. Maybe he would have been happy again. The same goes for America. Its time to get off the shrinks sofa and stop talking about how it all went wrong. The only way we are going to get better is to start to live again and challenge the future. When it gets hard, just remember our elections kick off again in Nov. This season we are going to get it right.
-Six Gun
