“Dr Thompson, please report to the political arena, Dr Thompson…”

One of my most prized possessions is a paperback copy of “Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas”, autographed by the good doctor himself, Dr Hunter S. Thompson.

The inscription reads “John, crush them when they tell you to fuck off, Hunter S. Thompson, July 1986”

Now, more than ever, we need HST. We need his razor sharp insight, his macabre prose, and his brutal honesty so we can make some sense of the political cluster fuck in the United States.

Sadly this will never happen since HST took his own life in 2005.

At the risk of naiveté, there was a time when politics was about issues. Now politics is about winning, at any cost, and the issues have become merely a fulcrum to shift the balance in favour of a given candidate. We cannot trust most mass media as they have their own agenda, be it political or commercial. CNN? Fox News? Michael Moore? Each has their agenda, and god forbid the truth get in the way.

So who is left to tell the truth?

Who even knows what the truth is anymore?

Lying to the public has become as acceptable to leaders as has telling the truth, there is no line to be crossed, no nagging conscience, and no moral compass. In an irreparably divisive political and social arena, where we are either “with” the government, or “against” them, we are expected to accept all “oracle” as truth.

Thompson was flawed; he was a drug addict and a severe alcoholic. This is no secret and he never attempted to keep it so. But in his darkness and anger lived a disarming intelligence and perception that made him as politically savvy as they come, and even more fearless.

RIP HST

jm