During last night’s vice-presidential debates, Joe Biden invoked Shakespeare in an effort to emphasize the impact that the Bush administration’s ineptitudes will have on the policies of whoever wins this November’s election, saying, “What’s past is prologue.” The fact that the aforementioned quote is from The Tempest is fitting considering the economic maelstrom that has come down upon Global and U.S. markets in the past few weeks. However, after watching last night’s debate and as a by-product of living in the stunted socio-political atmosphere of this country for my entire life, I look back to the more recent past for a quotation that resonates for me. It was over forty years ago when the psychedelic guru Dr. Timothy Leary urged people to, “Turn on, tune in, and drop out,” and it is in 2008 that I resound that call.
Leary’s philosophy was centered on the opening of human consciousness and spirituality based on the transformative powers of LSD. He told his followers to detach themselves from the conventional hierarchies of modern society and to become aware of their internal consciousness in an effort to reach a state of harmony with the world around them. This worldview would be all well and good if it weren’t dependent on the use of a mind-altering substance, but I’m not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
This wasn't exactly what I had in mind.
It is my growing belief that the only way to survive life in 21st century America is to follow a drugless, amended version of Leary’s mantra. We must be turned on in the sense that we need to reverse the perverse anti-intellectualism that has invaded modern American culture. The idea that people in this country find Sarah Palin appealing because she’s just so gosh-darn down-to-earth, folksy and “just like us” is disgusting. The fact that we have a vice-presidential candidate who can’t name a single Supreme Court decision besides Roe V. Wade should make us collectively gag as a nation.
However, this problem is not just contained to Governor Palin, but is endemic in politics as evidenced by the nauseating display of false middle-class identity that has become a staple of our election process. If I have to hear one more politician wax nostalgic about the rough and tumble small town that they grew up in I may have an aneurysm. But, to blame these actions solely on the heads of politicians would be to ignore our tacit encouragement of their behavior. The only reason a politician does anything is to get elected and every Washington strategist is convinced that this simplistic pandering is an effective strategy. Until we become an informed and learned nation that can call politicians out on their unscrupulous use of class as a political tool, then they will continue to do it.
Now, once you’ve begun the process of turning on, then you need to start tuning in. What tuning in consists of is a thorough analysis of everything that goes on around you and of everything that you are told. Tuning in is the practice of the skeptic and the cynic and it is necessary for sanity in 21st century America. If Barack Obama says he plans to do this, that, and the other in his first term, you take it with a grain of salt and try to determine whether or not it’s actually feasible. A perfect example of where tuning in is essential is when you’re watching The State of the Union. If President Bush asks congress to work on reducing gasoline usage in the United States by 20% in the next ten years, but won’t be in office for nine of those years, then you shouldn’t put too much stock in the plan. Tune in and siphon out the bullshit.
Finally, we come to the act of dropping out. This is the point of the program where I become nice and morose. If you want to survive in this nation you need to drop any emotional investment you have in politics or government. To paraphrase Woody Allen, politicians are notch below child molesters on the ethical food chain. These people will always disappoint you. They will always promise you things they can never give and withhold the things they can unless it will benefit them in some way. I was born into a world that has created in me cynicism and a healthy mistrust. Hope died in the 1960’s only to be resurrected in 2007 as a hollow campaign slogan and Democrats today are more conservative than Nixon was four decades ago. In order to make it from one day to the next you must drop out and view U.S. government as some obscene, absurdist piece of performance art that has no effect on your life. If you actually internalize how hard you’re getting fucked by the people who supposedly represent you, then you will never even approach a stable life.
Turn on your intellect, tune in to the actual meaning of the political rhetoric being shoved down your gullet, and drop out of that group of people who hold onto the childlike assumption that governments have your best interest at heart.
