|
KINGDOM OF FEAR: LOATHSOME SECRETS OF A
STARCROSSED CHILD IN THE FINAL DAYS OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY |
|
|
|
-Pepsi Sheen |
|
KINGDOM OF FEAR: LOATHSOME SECRETS OF A
STARCROSSED CHILD IN THE FINAL DAYS OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY |
|
|
|
-Pepsi Sheen |
King of the Original Gonzo ranters and one of our spiritual forebearers,
Doctor Thompson's carousing, maverick style is imitated poorly by
middle-class English-Lit majors and shameless sell-out, P.J. O'Rourke,
almost as often as Lester Bangs and Papa Bukowski, and all too often by
those who completely miss the point about what it means to be a maverick.
Louisville, Kentucky native, H.S.T. has blazed an uncommon trail across the
decades, developing his distinctive voice as a social-commentator, freedom
fighter and penetrating American sociologist, all while openly consuming
vast quantities of controlled substances, staying a few paranoid steps ahead
of the fun-police and consorting with a daunting array of infamous pill
poppers, politicians, performance artists, and other subcultural
subterraneans. Mocking abusive and petty authority; fulminating about
corruption and greed; skewering the heartbreakingly corrupt hypocrisy of the
monied in this country and generally living by his own rules, seizing the
liberties we're all entitled to as sovereign-born human beings--but get
beaten into believing are no longer worth fighting to defend. Now in his
sixties, Hunter remains livid and appalled by this saber-rattling,
illegitimately installed President ("goofy child president") whom he mocks
with un-camouflaged abhorrence. His incendiary riffs on the Gulf War and it's
endless, insatiably bloodthirsty current sequels are as indispensable,
vivifying, and precise as ever. It's a shame that Thompson's acerbic
observations and wry wit still seem so shocking. His no time to fuck around
style of courageous whistle blowing and hyperbole-drunken auto-mythologizing
still provide an unexpected jolt, lulled as we are, by the party-line liars
and personality-free hacks we currently endure. Imperishably-established as
part of the pantheon of American Myth, Thompson continues to jeopardize his
own prosperity by provoking power and setting an example as to what it means
to behave as though we're free in a free society, and the recurring
consequences of being your own person. "Kingdom of Fear" is mandatory
reading for anyone left who really still believes in authentic freedom and
democracy--as opposed to craven authoritarianism, cosmetic rebellion,the
anesthesia of constant consumption, capitalist imperialism and chilling
Orwellian double-speak. As always, "When The Going Gets Weird, The
Weird Turn Pro..."