Hunter S. Thompson and Other Youths Rally Against the War
Published February 03, 2003
Good luck. He is in for a profoundly difficult job — armed as he is with no credible Military Intelligence, no witnesses and only the ghost of Bin Laden to blame for the tragedy. He was right about the war beginning with Iraq: the Gulf War never ended, and it is both grandly fitting and a bizarre twist of fate that the first Bush's blunder can be at least partially rectified by the son. In addition, the fact that somewhere in our current president's mental list of motivations for toppling Saddam is closing a loop for his father in no way diminishes the rightness of that action.
And regarding Thompson, he may have been an occasionally great writer, but judgment has never been his strong suit. This assessment by Andy Markowitz is apt:
- Longtime fans know the rest of the story. The idea of Hunter S. Thompson has long since overtaken the actual writer--the startlingly original prose stylist and satirist whose dispatches from the dark corners of American culture and politics definitively chronicled "The Sixties" and their dank hangover. When he's not essentially portraying his epically excessive Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas alter ego in college lectures and comically appropriate brushes with the law, he's recycling old material and regurgitating old riffs--self-parodic blurts of brutality and bile, fear and loathing signifying nothing. He's morphed into a living Ralph Steadman cartoon. [Baltimore Citypaper]
I will give him credit for one thing, though: survival. If you would have told me 30 years ago that Hunter S. Thompson and Keith Richards would be alive and apparently thriving in 2003, I would have taken your bong away.
- Hunter S. Thompson and Other Youths Rally Against the War
- Published: February 03, 2003
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- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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Thanks Steve, interesting.
he who supports war shall die a little sooner than ME
he who supports war shall die a little sooner than ME
thats pretty ignorant. I can think of atleast a dozen things would make a person die alittle sooner than just supporting war. Its all the ebb and tide of things, my little friend, in case you haven't gotten the memo YOU are also an animal. Its the nature of beasts to fight. No, its not pretty, no it may not seem right, but its been the fabric of exsitence on earth since the dawn of creation. Its a world of survival, do it however you can, even if it is sitting on a self involved throne of malcontent. Eat me.
Just a quick note. Haven't read the article, but as a picky copy editing note...the title sounds as if Hunter Thompson is a youth. I may be wrong, but while Hunter may be youthful like Dick Clark, I don't think he'd be considered a youth.
PT, read, and all will be made clear, my dear.
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Salon has an interview with him. He only mentions war with Iraq in passing, but he goes after Bush and threats to civil liberties. He also talks about surviving and mentions Keith Richards (well, his hat).
Salon: So why would anybody listen to you?
I don't have to apologize for any political judgments I've made. The stuff I wrote in the '60s and '70s was astonishingly accurate. I may have been a little rough on Nixon, but he was rough. You had to do it with him. What you believe has to be worth something. I've never given it a lot of thought: I've never hired people to figure out what I should do about my image. I always work the same way, and talk the same way, and I've been right enough that I stand by my record.
But is there a sense in which your