An American Classic
I have finally gotten my hands on a copy of Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. I love Ken Kesey... LOVE him, but I'm not sure anymore how I feel about what he actually did within the psychedelic movement. And whether his outlook and mindset, outside of writing, influenced anything of importance. I DO NOT consider the Haight-Ashbury acid craze important.Anyone can take some drugs and notice something different. Anyone can take drugs, in general. This doesn't make you an educated individual. The only reason many acid heads and other drug enthusiasts think critically, is because they take the time to educate themselves and question everything. You have to work at education, drugs or not.
The psychedelic craze was all about "opening your mind" and trying to hold up beatnik ideals. Beatniks with drugs (other than bud) that still called themselves beatniks. We know them as hippies. So cool, right? Or were they just pseudo-intellectual fucks who dropped acid, smoked bud, and claimed they were working for change, politically and mentally? Yes, there was a mental revival, and there was political change, but how many actually knew what they stood for?
I find it funny that actual beatniks, Kerouac for example, were not impressed at all with the new generations of "beats." No one likes someone imitating them, no matter how many times they hear that goddamn "imitation is the highest form of flattery" saying. These people latched onto a movement, which many knew nothing of. They changed the message, but called it the same cause. They forced an image upon themselves and basically bragged about their newfound "hipness."
Laugh at the masses because they don't know what you've found on drugs and opening your mind. Mock the creators of what you stand for because they aren't keeping up with the trends. No one knows as much as you do. Chameleon, hippy, hipster... what's the fucking difference?
