Hunter S. Thompson and the Counter Culture

Hunter S. Thompson and the Counter Culture

First published in Rolling Stone Magazine over 25 years ago, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson captured the closing moments of the counter culture in America.  It is to this day deemed as a time capsule perfectly exemplifying the feelings of the time.  All of the social change accomplished by the Civil Rights movement, the sexual revolution, and the anti-war protests and rhetoric of the flower children are deeply intertwined with the 1960’s counter culture which Thompson inconically represents in his prose.  His most memorable quote, most commonly referred to as the “wave speech” embodies the core nature of the conflict of the times, in representing the massive rush of the counter culture movement as well as the fall of its many significant heroes.

In his work, Judgment Days, Nick Kotz remarks on the significant impact figures like Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy had on America in the 1960’s when he says,

These two were the indispensible leaders, in the right place at the right time to effect the end of legal apartheid in America. Without the synergy they created together, the outcome of the civil rights revolution would have been very different.  That brief moment in the 1960s, a time jolting social and political turbulence, created significant consequences for all citizens. (Kotz, 2005)

Undoubtedly these two men were indispensible for the social change that occurred during the 1960s, in how King’s march on Washington combined with John F. Kennedy’s presidency would eventually lead to the passing of the Civil Rights Act; but, in truth they are just the most acclaimed of many heroic figures who stood up against the corruption and injustice of their era.  During this time Muhammad Ali established himself as a figure of black pride; he was the heavy weight champion of the world and when he refused to be drafted into the army for his opposition to the Vietnam war, he signified a direct correlation between the hippie activists and the Civil Rights movement.  Likewise, figures like Malcom X and Hewey Newton, leader of the Black Panther party, uncovered the conspiracies within the American Democratic process that plagued the black community, and they offered a message of self defense for those who found King’s message of nonviolence too passive to swallow. On the American prison system Malcom X argued that, “There is no agenda that can lead 12 % of a population into making up more than 60% of the prison population accept a racial agenda.  It is no secret that convicted felons are deprived the right to vote, and work most respected jobs in the United States.  We are talking about a system that isn’t keen to being opposed (X, 1998).”  Lines were drawn and conflicts were arising everywhere throughout the country.  The battle wasn’t just for civil liberties but for sexual freedom as well.

            The sexual revolution, while sometimes overlooked, was also a major part of the counter culture.  Women held rallies and marches burning bras in the name equal rights, which held a familiar likeness to the cause of the Civil Rights movement.  Dually, the mentality of free love and peace promoted by the flower children of the time was largely enforced by views on sexuality drawn from the sexual revolution.   The 1960’s represent the first modern era of open sexuality in America.  The Kinsey Reports of 1948 and 1953 are often credited as the main catalyst leading to men and women feeling more comfortable about sex and the ability to experiment outside what might be considered the social norms.  A major part of this revolution came in the advent of the birth control pill which in part fueled the more wild and erratic sexual practices of the 60’s youth compared to generations before.  Both the Civil Rights movement and the Sexual revolution were deeply imbedded in the ideology of the 1960’s counter culture.

The 1960’s counter culture mostly originated out of college campuses, specifically with the 1964 Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley, which in turn originated out of the Civil Rights Movement of the American South.  The ‘New Left’ is a term often used to describe the political stance of the individuals who contributed to these left-wing movements between 1960 and 1970.  The major reason why these movements were considered ‘new-left,’ had to do with the fact that they focused more towards cultural change than labor oriented activism.   Identified as the movement of college campuses, mass protests and opposition to the Vietnam War, no other characteristic more signified the 1960’s counter culture than the use of LSD and other psychedelic drugs.

            When Ken Kesey and what he referred to as his “Merry Pranksters” decided to embark on a cross country LSD induced voyage during the summer of 1964 in a psychedelic bus they called “Further,” he single handedly characterized the 1960’s counter culture through the media attention he drew.   Ironically Kesey’s first encounter with psychedelic drugs was sponsored by the United States government, when in 1959 he was selected for the testing the effects of LSD, psilocybin and mescaline for the CIA’s MK ULTRA project.  After the trials, Kesey continued his own self experimentations with psychedelics and he visited Harvard University’s notorious promoter of LSD Timothy Leary at his Millbrook, New York retreat.  Many flower children / hippies flocked to Leary’s hideaway for the purpose of going internal reflection and attaining self actualization.  The use of drugs for spiritual and mental expansion was a major part of the counter culture as Thompson demonstrates in his novel with the infamous drug list when he says,   “The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers . . . and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls (Thompson, 2000).” These self experimentations, and retreats allowed for the youth groups to assemble and conversate over their views on American society, only further heightening their contempt for the status quo.  At a pinnacle point during the movement, in protest to the war the largest anti-war demonstration in history was held when over 250,000 people marched from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, as the crowd chanted “All we are asking is give peace a chance” and Timothy Leary shouted out his famous phrase “Tune in, turn on, and drop out!”  When President Richard Nixon went on National television and announced that American forces would be invading Cambodia and that 150,000 troops would need to be drafted it resulted in a group of protestors launching a riot at Kent State University in Ohio that caused fire damage to the campus, injuries and the deaths of many protestors.  This unavoidable eruption of impassioned individuals recognized as hippies and flower children in the 1960’s were a direct product of  the Beat Generation that had operated underground just ten years prior.

American poet Jack Kerouac has been classified as the originator of the Beat Generation.  He is known for his spontaneous confessional style, as well as his connection to Buddhism, Allen Ginsberg, and American self actualization. His rejection of mainstream 1950’s society is his trademark, and the core ideal behind the beat-nick culture he helped spawn.  Hunter S. Thompson’s writing style holds an eerie similarity to the prose of Jack Kerouac, and it rightfully so, considering that both novelists approached their work from similar free flowing positions.  Both authors have been characterized a writing “stream of consciousness prose” which is a perfect representation for the counter culture, as Kerouac once noted about his writing style, “I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down (Kerouac, 2003)”

Jack Kerouac has a very distinct and original style.  Upon first evaluation of his style, his work might be deemed as cliché, or showy self loathing libation; but it must be remembered that, Kerouac was one of the first to adopt his free flowing form of poetry.  He is also noted for connecting his poetry to the beat-nick poets. Kerouac is most commonly referred to as the King of the Beats and the Father of the Hippies.  This is largely due with the fact that his poetry is most immediately inspired by Jazz music, specifically bebop by Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker.  He compiled this Jazz influence with a love of Buddhist studies, specifically Gary Snyder.  The name he dubbed his new found form is Spontaneous Prose.  It is often compared to the literary technique known as stream of consciousness, which is often deemed as a literary mirror of a writer’s thought process.  While writing, Kerouac took the first thought or line that came to his mind and went with it.  This technique is most recognizable in his novels Visions of Cody, Big Sur, Visions of Gerard, On the Road, and The Subterraneans.  The core concept this method revolved around is a breathing technique very similar to that of Jazz, or Buddhist meditation. It is most evidently represented by a dash mark in place of a period.  The practice of improvising words based on implied or inherently inferred meanings was another aspect of Spontaneous Prose.  .  The core concept this method revolved around is a breathing technique very similar to that of Jazz, or Buddhist meditation.  The Beat Generation is an uprising that formed mostly on some of America’s best-known college campuses in the mid to late 50’s.  It influenced students in the early 60’s to seek hard hitting answers to some of the complex questions posed to their generation.  Addressing ideas like the coexistence of wealth and poverty, alongside with racial prejudice resulted in the beat-nicks forming what would be considered the American New Left.  An example of this is the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); which founded at the University of Michigan in 1960, it became one of the key organizations formed in reaction to Beat ideals. The core belief of this student body was that Americans should practice direct democracy as opposed to representative democracy.  This stemmed largely from the strict nature of Universities during that time in which students felt they were just numbers in a system dictating their existence.  These students were also known for being supporters of the Black Power movement.  These groups are also historic for being the most visible resource for developing protests against the Vietnam War.  This New Left was the child that the Beat Generation gave birth to, and its influence on American culture can be credited for many of the sociological changes in our society today. Jack Kerouac, along with the rest of the beat-nick poets, can be credited as well.  They were the flame that sparked this generational chain reaction.

            If Jack Kerouac is the father author of the beatnik generation which eventually gave birth to the hippie movement and its counter culture, than Hunter S. Thompson gained his acclaim by chronicling its end.  Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a revelation on the American dream, in that it reveals the dark truth of the counter cultural movement, specifically the drug culture. Thomson embodies the counter culture as his own and recognizes himself as an devout member of the 1960’s drug culture as it was happening.  His most acclaimed prose from his novel and what he personally considers to be the best text he has ever written is most commonly referred to as the ‘wave speech’, where he says,

There was a fantastic universal sense that what we were doing was right, that we were winning…And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave…So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes, you can almost see the high water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back. (Thompson, 2000)

This particular quote holds special significance in relation to the events of the 1960’s because Thompson is able to verbalize the initial rush and inevitable decline of the counter culture movement.  Dually his characters Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo reflect direct products of the counter culture.  They travel to Las Vegas, which is the embodiment of American capitalism and commercialism and they completely disrespect and disregard all normal forms of social etiquette.  They trash their hotels, run up massive bills and then skip out on them, interlope as unwelcomed guests among members of anti-drug seminars and police retreats, virtually making a mockery of the entire establishment, while at the same time Thompson contemplates his own self worth and the value of his actions and those whom they represent.  When Thompson says that the wave rolled back, he doesn’t imply that there were no accomplishments made, but he does recognize that there were some mistakes made by the counter culture, specifically the false belief that the abuse of psychedelic drugs could lead an entire people to enlightenment.  The wave rolling back also represents the assassination of some of Americas greatest heroes in Martin Luther King, Malcom X, and JFK.  While he touches on this concept through his prose, the connection can also be made in the plot of his story and how at the end he and Dr. Gonzo each go their separate ways due to a mistrust of one another caused by an over indulgence of drugs.  What is most telling about the counter culture of the 1960’s in Thompson’s wave passage is that he relates to being a part of this amazing empowering wave that changed America forever and yet his drug use has him filled with fear and loathsome throughout every moment of the ride.

Work Cited

Kerouac, Jack. (2003) The Dharma Bums. New York: Penguin (Non-Classics).

Kotz, Nick. Judgment Days : Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr. , and the Laws That Changed America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company Trade ; Reference Division, 2005.

Thompson, Hunter S., and Ralph Steadman. (2000) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas : A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. New York: Vintage.

X., Malcolm, Alex Haley, and M. S. Handler. (1998) Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Broadway Books.

;