Anonymous #5 said:

You are missing the point. It isn't about all the drugs or the craziness , it is about the sanity that exists between those lines. Raoul Duke was nothing more than a fictional vehicle created to allow Hunter S. Thompson to convey the hopeless, emotional detachment that was the intellectual property of a whole generation. It does a fantastic job of allowing the reader to experience the counter-culture through the eyes of it's Bastard General right at the end of a battle that the free citizens of thought should never have had to fight. It shows that not only do entheogens, or drugs for the limited in vocabulary, allow for escape from the norms, but in many cases are the opposite of the debilitating, mind numbing poisons that the US Gov't has been trying to tell us and the world they are for all these years. All this is done without trying to glorify the dangers and pitfalls of their effects. It also shows the that power, greed, and corruption (even his own) are as equally dangerous as any psychedelic experience, but that these traits will not fade away after eight hours. The representation of the police, politicians, and persons of priveleged position (himself included), though exaggerated and cynical at times, applies even today. Even through their fog it is easy to recognize the "swine" for what the are, and if the "druggies" see it, what is it that is stopping the "straight-edgers" from pulling the plug on these land-rapers and greed-heads? Hence the name Fear and Loathing, for that was all Thompson had for this nation or any at the turn of the decade in 1970. He saw coming what we are living through today: the inability to trust anyone in a position of power. The book is a revolutionary attempt to get people to start questioning that which we are expected to accept unconditionally. Try reading the book. Or appreciate that the movie was made by Terry Gilliam, and in true fashion of all his work, is quite confusing in its sequencing and transitioning. Or join the opposing forces. but know if you do, we are out here, and we will not stop until every last man, woman, and child is free.
FREAK POWER.

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Can I get an AMEN !!!!
I would love to add more but it takes forever to type with one arm in a cast

Quote:

It shows that not only do entheogens, or drugs for the limited in vocabulary, allow for escape from the norms, but in many cases are the opposite of the debilitating, mind numbing poisons that the US Gov't has been trying to tell us and the world they are for all these years

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I didn't get any of that at all.  I found that the entire movie portrayed them exactly as "debilitating, mind numbing poisons."

But other than that, I guess I see what you're saying.

Maybe I'll watch it again with that subtext in mind.  Maybe...