I've been writing more and shooting less lately. This week's rant:
Congratulations to the citizens of Colorado and Washington state, who are leading the slow march back to good common sense by voting an end to modern prohibition.
I'm not much one for "Zero Tolerance." There's a place for it (kids packing guns in schools, pedophilia, etc.), but recreational use of soft drugs isn't one of them. (Full Disclosure: I'm not a drug user. I outgrew tobacco, weed and alcohol back around 1978.)
First, realize that we Americans use drugs all day every day. We use caffiene, sugar, powerful herbs & potent beans, nicotene, alcohol, an enormous number of prescription drugs, over-the-counter remedies, pills, potions, and lotions to great excess. As Dr. Andrew Weil said, "an anthropologist from another planet would see people here as needing a fix every five minutes."
So "the war on drugs" is really a War on SOME Drugs. It is literally a war, meaning there is a condition of hostility between distinct cultures, and cultures are and always have been defined by a number of factors - including their drug of choice.
On one side of the modern conflict is the dominant culture of the industrialized Northern Hemisphere. This culture is typified by monotheism, small-scale community peace but large-scale violence and war (and often violent sports like football, boxing & wrestling), imposed control, a generally more sedate music, and the prominent drugs of choice: alcohol, tobacco and caffeine.
On the other side are various groups of subordinate and suppressed cultures. One of these cultures is what I'll call the Bohemians: art-fags like me, beatniks, hippies, punks, goths, motorheads & bikers, and probably a majority of artists, musicians, (and more than a few SG'ers, I'd imagine.) The drugs of choice in these cultures are characterized by marijuana and the psychedelics. Another prominent subordinate culture is the Urban Blacks, who share the Bohemian choice of weed and some of whom tend toward use of crack cocaine and heroin. These are usually cultures of pantheism, small-scale gang type violence but a large-scale allegiance to peace, overt sexuality, tribalism, raw humor, and a more raucous music and dance.
If the objective of the War On Some Drugs was to stop these cultures from using their drugs of choice, then it would have to be judged as big a failure as was Prohibition in the 1920's. But that is not the objective. The primary objective is cultural domination and marginalization of the dominated cultures, so as to achieve the intended purpose that the dominant culture has always had: to harden the institutions of control, and extend the authority of the Industrial State.
In these critical areas, the War On Some Drugs has been a resounding success. Approximately one-quarter of the adult black male population is now incarcerated, most for drug use or the violence that grows out of drug lawlessness. (There are more than 1.2 million Americans in jail, more than are held prisoner in the People's Republic of China, a notorious police state with 5 times more people than we have.) Furthermore, the values of the Bohemian class have been so suppressed that many of us lie about our fundamental beliefs to our own children and live in a general condition of anxiety or fear.
The system isn't broken. It's working. As always, the white men in suits are winning and winning big. So let's recognize that yes, indeed, there are some enemies of the people out there. But whether the enemy is "some drugs" or white men in suits is, in my mind, open to debate.
Congratulations to the citizens of Colorado and Washington state, who are leading the slow march back to good common sense by voting an end to modern prohibition.
I'm not much one for "Zero Tolerance." There's a place for it (kids packing guns in schools, pedophilia, etc.), but recreational use of soft drugs isn't one of them. (Full Disclosure: I'm not a drug user. I outgrew tobacco, weed and alcohol back around 1978.)
First, realize that we Americans use drugs all day every day. We use caffiene, sugar, powerful herbs & potent beans, nicotene, alcohol, an enormous number of prescription drugs, over-the-counter remedies, pills, potions, and lotions to great excess. As Dr. Andrew Weil said, "an anthropologist from another planet would see people here as needing a fix every five minutes."
So "the war on drugs" is really a War on SOME Drugs. It is literally a war, meaning there is a condition of hostility between distinct cultures, and cultures are and always have been defined by a number of factors - including their drug of choice.
On one side of the modern conflict is the dominant culture of the industrialized Northern Hemisphere. This culture is typified by monotheism, small-scale community peace but large-scale violence and war (and often violent sports like football, boxing & wrestling), imposed control, a generally more sedate music, and the prominent drugs of choice: alcohol, tobacco and caffeine.
On the other side are various groups of subordinate and suppressed cultures. One of these cultures is what I'll call the Bohemians: art-fags like me, beatniks, hippies, punks, goths, motorheads & bikers, and probably a majority of artists, musicians, (and more than a few SG'ers, I'd imagine.) The drugs of choice in these cultures are characterized by marijuana and the psychedelics. Another prominent subordinate culture is the Urban Blacks, who share the Bohemian choice of weed and some of whom tend toward use of crack cocaine and heroin. These are usually cultures of pantheism, small-scale gang type violence but a large-scale allegiance to peace, overt sexuality, tribalism, raw humor, and a more raucous music and dance.
If the objective of the War On Some Drugs was to stop these cultures from using their drugs of choice, then it would have to be judged as big a failure as was Prohibition in the 1920's. But that is not the objective. The primary objective is cultural domination and marginalization of the dominated cultures, so as to achieve the intended purpose that the dominant culture has always had: to harden the institutions of control, and extend the authority of the Industrial State.
In these critical areas, the War On Some Drugs has been a resounding success. Approximately one-quarter of the adult black male population is now incarcerated, most for drug use or the violence that grows out of drug lawlessness. (There are more than 1.2 million Americans in jail, more than are held prisoner in the People's Republic of China, a notorious police state with 5 times more people than we have.) Furthermore, the values of the Bohemian class have been so suppressed that many of us lie about our fundamental beliefs to our own children and live in a general condition of anxiety or fear.
The system isn't broken. It's working. As always, the white men in suits are winning and winning big. So let's recognize that yes, indeed, there are some enemies of the people out there. But whether the enemy is "some drugs" or white men in suits is, in my mind, open to debate.
dwam:
Thanks for your love on my set ! 
THAT was a compliment !
THAT was a compliment !