Culture - Was Timothy Leary Right?

[Shampoo]

Originally Posted by Panthers007

If the next Timothy Leary stands up, please shoot him! (Or at very least - wrap him up in duct tape foot to head and roll him in a closet until the research is well-established).

What exactly do you mean by the next Timothy Leary? It seems like Leary only had such a grand soapbox opportunity because of an amalgamation of such societal factors as the rapid formation of anti-establishment movements, social disillusion regarding the post-war (II) and pre-war (Vietnam) hotbed of international turmoil, and most importantly, the general ignorance regarding psychedelics. Not to mention, to most of the country, he was saying something new. What would the next leary have to shout about? Unless someone finds a new set of neuroreceptors to play with, or finds definitive proof of some noospheric destination, why would so many people listen? I am in no way defending Leary, it simply seems like such an impossible set of circumstances would need recreation for a next Leary. Unless you are referring simply to a loud-mouthed 'look-at-me' pseudo-shaman touting the universal wonders of psychedelics, in which case the world already seems flooded with them, with nary a new dent made.

Reputation Comments on this post:

great post detailing what is usually ignored - the context, set, and setting of a different era!

[Panthers007]

I was inferring the latter description. Regards not being unique - true. But if the government can groom a bufoon to use as grounds to make psychedelics and their usage punishable by an IRS audit or something, they likely will. I just don't want to see the "40 Year Nap" be repeated again. It's time to move forward with research, not for some pop-guru to take the wheel and drive the ship into the rocks. Again.

[beentheredonethatagain]

Originally Posted by Panthers007

I was inferring the latter description. Regards not being unique - true. But if the government can groom a bufoon to use as grounds to make psychedelics and their usage punishable by an IRS audit or something, they likely will. I just don't want to see the "40 Year Nap" be repeated again. It's time to move forward with research, not for some pop-guru to take the wheel and drive the ship into the rocks. Again.

he is exactly right on this one. Leary was a sellout. He should have just kept things low profile and not wave a big flag shouting look at them hippies enjoying LSD 25.

[enquirewithin]

Leary would probably have done things differently if he knew what was up ahead, but it's likely that, had he not existed, things would have turned out much the same.

That was the time of Nixon, for those who remember him, and government paranoia. The hippies were anti-war and the drunken Nixon and that calculating criminal Kissinger were trying to stop those sentiments. Everyone was getting arrested and investigated. Innocent Asians were getting slaughtered by the thousands by illegal US bombing raids. And so on.

[Lobsang]

There is a new Leary. It is called Youtube. Where a bunch of kids smoke salvia and record themselves out of control and plaster it all over the internet. In fact salvia would not be in the process of being made illegal if it was not for the internet.

[Panthers007]

If you think Nixon was fun - Bush & Co. is selling the National Mall (not a shopping center in Washington, D.C. - the expanse of open land adjoining the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Reflecting Pool) to a "private" corporation. As the National Mall is the space where hundreds of thousands of American citizens gather for protests, songs, and other 'un-patriotic' activities, by privatizing this publicly-owned expanse people will no longer be allowed there to gather - except tourists. You would need permission from the corporate owners. And Bush Co. refuses to divulge who they will be.

This effectively ends the right to freely assemble and make your voice heard in the nation's capitol.

Nixon? Nixon and Kissinger?? They were peanuts compared to this crew. Even Tricky Dick would grab his hippie-wig and hit the streets over this one.

Timothy Leary is dead. If he, grandstanding nutjob that he was, was prevented from having a gathering in Washington to make his voice heard - he'd probably kill himself.

"Good night. And good luck." -

Edward R. Murrow

[beentheredonethatagain]

Originally Posted by Panthers007

If you think Nixon was fun - Bush & Co. is selling the National Mall (not a shopping center in Washington, D.C. - the expanse of open land adjoining the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Reflecting Pool) to a "private" corporation. As the National Mall is the space where hundreds of thousands of American citizens gather for protests, songs, and other 'un-patriotic' activities, by privatizing this publicly-owned expanse people will no longer be allowed there to gather - except tourists. You would need permission from the corporate owners. And Bush Co. refuses to divulge who they will be.

This effectively ends the right to freely assemble and make your voice heard in the nation's capitol.

Nixon? Nixon and Kissinger?? They were peanuts compared to this crew. Even Tricky Dick would grab his hippie-wig and hit the streets over this one.

Timothy Leary is dead. If he, grandstanding nutjob that he was, was prevented from having a gathering in Washington to make his voice heard - he'd probably kill himself.

"Good night. And good luck." -

Edward R. Murrow

C.B.S. news ? like dan rather?

[Panthers007]

Google is your friend. Edward R. Murrow. Look it up. Even Keith Olberman (MSNBC) is using that as his sign-off.

Good night. And good luck.