When people began to take psychedelic drugs in the late 50's and early 60's, artists and thinkers all over the western society began to completely revamp the way that popular culture was inspired. The hippy movement that sprung out of psychedelic drug use in the 60's was a reaction to the society of the 50's. It was a reaction to what seemed a total ignorance having covered society for hundreds of years. What was this culture of specificly cut clothing, of handsome instead of sexy? where women were clasped to single duties and where men were obliged to manners many? the 50's was full of so many oppressed inner feelings and fast paced lifestyles. Everything was designed to have a clean surface and a plastic prevailence. Everything was growing and developing outward, and new appliances were entering our lives, which served new functions to influence or interact with the world. So all in all the 50's was the pinnacle of a culture, one which had been educated by war but principled by western dogma, and inspired by victory. But It was fuelled by alcohol, and sedatives, and raught with racism and civil inequality. Everyone was making a piece of the world for themselves and pride was being calculated by your position in society. And all this was torn about by psychedelics, which brought people's minds out of the clutter of that fast, shiny world, and back into our free selves. The trippers had so much to build on. They found pleasure in nature, in chaos, in exotic and dangerous themes. And they were situated on a blank slate of sharp lines and smokey curves. Almost everything they did was a vibrant and eclectic original artwork. On returning to their ego world, a lot of shame and confusion would likelyhave followed, as the psychedelic world is so radically different, and, well, egoless. All their thoughts clashed. But Timothy Leary and other prominent celebrities allowed people confidence to go with it, and psychedelics found a firm place in the collective consciousnesses. Well this whole movement did not seem to end, it merely dissolved into culture and became an icon. We live in a different world now. We live in a world that has seen all this. A world that has gone to both extremes and over time balanced into more of an equilibrium. the 50's was an ultimate time of Ego. The 60's psychedelic movement crashed a wave over this Ego world and threw American energy (youth and young adults) from extreme to extreme. And then they found their balance. this involved very much returning to an Ego based society, but at teh same time introducing into this society an open perspective on culture and oppinion and values. The society we live in now is multicultural, it amalgamates and accepts art, food, style from all over the world, and it has thrown aside its very strict sense of manners and social rules. The society we live in now has computer technology. The internet. An economic system making transactions almost instantaneously, with money that doesnt even exist. The levels of security, and of liability imposed. With the acceptance of everything came the requirement for stricter and more structured administration. Taking psychedelics in todays world is quite different, I would imagine, to taking it back in the 60's. But we perhaps need psychedelics more than ever, to see through the web of assumptions that we require of ourselves, in order to keep up with the forward trajectory we have imposed. But it is going to take a different approach to that we relate to psychedelics. Leary is dead, Hoffman, Huxley too. Mckenna also was stuck in the baby boomers perpsective, and he is gone now anyway. All of the celebrities of the psychedelic era have basically dropped off. We are coming into a new era. One that is going to have to stop looking out into a screen, into a virtual reality, and FACE ITSELF. Where people will relinquish themselves from this techno universe for just a moment, and grab a hold of our inner humanity. Our inner humanity is undervalued a lot. The natural state of ouor being is not this world we have lived in for the last few thousand years. The natural state of our being does not have complex symbol systems and diary-planned lifestyles. The natural state of our being is not to live by a clock, or to watch television. It is not natural for humans to worry about paying rent, or going to jail. Humans lived for thousands and thousands of years (and still do today in many native cultures) at the top of the animal kingdom. But recently Man has gained technology, and has gained actual control of the earth. HE has thought that it is this technology, this intelligence that he has which makes him the supreme animal. But man's control has got to his head. The natural state of human beings is to accept the influence of nature. That control is not in human beings hands, instead it is guided by spirits. But as man's controlling intelligence developed, as he began to control his own thoughts even, by teaching himself to react to symbols with thoughts and then manipulating these symbols. But as man became more intelligent, religion changed. Spirits change to Gods. As he began to create order in the world, he began to understand, and percieve order, more and more, until the order in the world needed explainations. Gods had motives, whereas spirits just were. He began to create complex concepts in order to manage all the order that he has placed in the world. We are now living in a world where we are almost completely obsessed with imposed structures and symbolic concepts. we as a species have spent about three thousand years brewing up the necessary conceptual structures to harness and integrate every surface of the earth and every piece of information into one communicatable world. I love this aspect of the world that I am a part of. But I would much prefer to pull a lot of it away, because if anything, our standardised information system is going to prevent further scientific and philosophical progress. I feel that this curse of man, being obsessed in what he can do with his language, is awesome and should be the progression of human evolution. But we are going too fast, way too fast. With psychedelics, society can find another way to break out of its structures. The structures we have nowadays are different to those in the 50's, and so we will have to find a new movement, and new way of being a 'hippy', but one that is armed with 21st century heinsight and unlimited technological possibilities. We need to stop questioning our alliances and start questioning our values. I hope there are people out there who see my point.
I think we will see major change when the first generations of people who never knew life before the internet age and begin taking government/societal positions. I'd like to see the adoption of a world government, although I'll probably be long dead before that happens. We may see change before that even, when the people of the 50's begin leaving office, and hippies take their place... although that should have already started happening. Universal education wouldn't hurt either, the ignorance I see daily in this country frightens me sometimes. But I guess, compared to 100 or even 50 years ago, we're doing pretty well. Good stuff though dude, made me think.
hahaha, done this many times, ha. yea, its intense. but not as bad as law enforcement or authority. its actually not that bad, you just have to get used to it. although during rush hour, peaking, being crammed like sardines in a box is one of the worst clautrophobic feelings. although i've had worse on 2ce on a bus where i was bugging.
intriguing post, but can you summarize your main points? from what i read the world and its values have changed, and this affects the "setting" of your trip. how do psychedelics benefit society?
Just that i doubt the human race will be able to find total peace with itself before i die, whenever that may be.
