Hemp revisited

Yesterday it was interesting writing about hemp. I received dozens of comments and emails, some were funny, some were about other useful products made of hemp and a few just wanted me to write about getting high. It made me think of one friend known as Jabba (yes like Jabba the Hut) -he got that nick name partly because he has ballooned out to over 450 lbs (220 kg) and partly because he's a depraved Dionysian character who's life can be summed up in Ian Dury's song Sex and Drugs and Rock&Roll. Amazing Jabba is never with female company and we have a betting pool on how Jabba is going to leave this world; liver failure, heart attack, drug overdose, spectacular flaming car crash or a venereal disease are all odds on favorites.

Jabba's hero in life is Hunter S. Thompson and Jabba regularly repeats the quote "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they always worked for me". One of the appeals of a man like Thompson is he could take enough drugs and control substances that the everyday world we live in is more like a visit to a distant and alien planet. Isn't that why space aliens are so popular in science fiction; they are like us but also not like us, and because they're different they can tell us about being human from outside prospective.

A prospective viewpoint has a totally subjective value. On a daily basis I have to deal with a few very closed minded people that can only see the world through a narrow and tainted lens of personal prejudices as well as a willful insistence on being voluntarily ignorant. They are the kind of people who would kill off Klaatu (The Day The Earth Stood Still) or Thomas Newton ( from the Man Who Fell To Earth, the 1976 movie with David Bowie is good but the book by Walter Tevis is better).

This brings me back to yesterday and why I wanted to separate hemp from marijuana. There are still clusters of folks that are willing to forgo a multi-billion dollar industry instead of  taking a chance that one more teenage kid will discover another way of getting high.

In their minds saying yes to industrial hemp is letting the cultural terrorists of the 1960's win. It's like one ultra religious family in the neighborhood, to them any mishap that falls upon a know Atheist is proof positive of God's existence and the prosperity the local heathens and apostates becomes a crisis of faith.

So part of the price of the culture wars is saying no to hemp though it's something so useful that I've come to believe it is one of God's gifts to humanity.

In Jabba's collection of must watch movies is Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas. I was a little disappointed because I read the book long before the film was made. But maybe this is what the 47% of Americans who voted for Romney fear the most, people like Jabba and Hunter S Thompson who really don't care about the recognized tokens of success.

A while back I was at a cocktail party of the local well to-dos. I kept quiet but lent out a sympathetic ear to anyone that was loosen up into a talking mood after a couple of free drinks. One impression I got was that making lots of money was as difficult and soul crushing as living in poverty. That having money was doubly wrought with anxiety because there was the fear of losing it and the nagging  suspicion that poorer people where having lots more fun than them.

Just in case I got you in the mood for a little Hunter S Thompson (at least an entertaining version of him) I would suggest the 1980 movie Where The Buffalo Roam. It stars a young and funny Bill Murray, long before Wes Anderson made him an art house movie hero.

The real Hunter S Thompson was like blue-white stars in the galaxy -hot and brilliant but destine for self destruction. "The Edge..there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over."

                                  From the Mailbox

 

I was very happy to read all of the responses I got through my Google account. This is a nice community of people. I do apologize for my clumsy lack of knowledge in computer educate. A few people in circles I belong to got this blog and were a bit confused. One thing I would like to make clear is I am not a marketing company and as of yet I have nothing to sell.

To Gary and Millie, thanks for sharing your memories of spending Saturday night with a big box of 45's and a portable record player. I hope playing "dead, retired or still touring" brings back some of the fun of finding new music and reminiscing about the old stuff.   

To Nicole - I hope your son is out of the hospital soon. Nicole and her family live in the land down under and she is always good natured about my depictions of Australia as a land tippy larrikins.