" Those who fail to pick up from the cruel stompings visited on them in the past are doomed to be viciously stomped in the future . " - Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson did n’t thrive on political chaos , he was political topsy-turvyness . My mind has been fixed on the good doctor a great deal today because 1 ) It ’s his natal day ; 2 ) It ’s the first Clarence Shepard Day Jr. of what anticipate to be one of the most exorbitant and irregular examples of political chaos since the Democratic convention in 1968 ; And 3 ) due to some eldritch wizardry , these thing are happen on the same day . Call it a natal day gift come 11 years too deep .
The 1968 convention radicalize Thompson . The convention depend to be a corker and he went to traverse it forRampartsmagazine . Along the way , as chaos bloomed in the streets of Chicago he was beaten and gassed and something click . Somewhere amid the sess and screams , he emerged as the intrepid madman we know today . “ Hunter told me that he go to the ‘ 68 rule as a newsman and he come back a lunatic , ” enjoin Curtis Robinson , Thompson ’s latter - year editor .
Getty Images/Michael Ochs
It remain to be seen whether 48 yr subsequently , Cleveland 2016 will come near the disgraceful chaos of Chicago 1968 . There ’s every opportunity it wo n’t , of course of instruction , give changes in police force and security function . Not to remark the fact that there ’s a whole lot of money that ’s a whole passel interested in this thing go off smoothly . Regardless , we ’ll never know HST ’s reaction to the peculiar brand of fear and abomination roiling its mode around Cleveland this calendar week . All we eff is that his take would have been surprising , deranged and honest .
of course , that trademark honesty stretch to Thompson ’s exceeding imbibing . Were he in Cleveland , we ’d be warrant a few epic tale of consumption alongside the political insight . For now , we ’ll console ourselves with this passage from early on inFear and Loathing On the Campaign Trail ' 72 , where he describes his authorship environment :
If you suspect Thompson might be goosing the turn for effect , think again . “ In my experience , ” Robinson says , “ that stuff is documentary , not hyperbole at all . Hunter picked up the gin substance abuse in South America . By the time we were friends he had shift to Chivas . But he always loved grapefruit . ”
Of course , Thompson was n’t the only reporter hitting the bottle in 1972 . Here ’s how he describes the scene in George McGovern ’s effort gaggle , which had two sheet , the Dakota Queen ( where McGovern and most of his staffers rode ) and the Zoo Plane ( which held mostly journalist ) .
When you make your livelihood writing about crapulence , it ’s only natural to have a few drunkenness writers who inform you , either as exemplars or warning taradiddle . A select few like HST can be both . We are all of us poorer for not hearing his take on the conflicted political party loyalists , strident protesters , police , Trumpists and the none - of - the - abovers who are no doubt descending on Cleveland and begin to mix themselves into a heretofore unknown cocktail as I type this .
Before he cling up the phone , the last matter Robinson say to me was “ if the bad blood of the ‘ 68 convention gave us decades of Hunter S. Thompson , who knows what this one will give us . ” I found that calming . It ’s a promising idea in a time when Bob Hope sense like it ’s been held prisoner in someone ’s basement , only let out for the occasional savage beating . So I ’ll take what I can get out of Cleveland . I for certain do n’t require to see tear gas in the streets , but I still hold out Leslie Townes Hope that the convention will be apocalyptical enough to represent as a crucible that smashes another ashen - hot agent of bedlam into being . Someone who can take up the doctor ’s drape and dazzle us with political insight and pyrotechnical language , as we simultaneously worry for her health and sanity .
So today of all days , I urge you to join me in raising a gin and grapefruit to the next good doctor . May they ever bite in the glaring Light Within of truth and surfeit .