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One can make a non-ludicrous case that the most important event in the cultural history of America since the 18’60s was the introduction of L S D. Before acid h

by hartror 15y ago

One can make a non-ludicrous case that the most important event in the cultural history of America since the 18’60s was the introduction of L S D. Before acid hit American culture, even the rebels believed, as Thoreau, Emerson and Whitman implicitly did, in something like God given authority. Authority, all agreed, derived from a system wherein God or Dad ( or, more often, both ) was on top and you were on the bottom. Does this passage strike anyone else as over stating LSD's impact? I wasn't there, hell my parents weren't out of their teens in the 60s but from my perspective it doesn't seem to me like a considerable portion of the population took LSD. Granted the cultural impact of the drug spread further than just the people who imbued it but the 60s had so many other factors at work. I think the social revolution of the 60s allowed LSD and the culture it created to flourish and not the other way round as seems to be being argued here.

rufugee 15y ago
Hard to say. There were obviously mushrooms as well which were (at least...from what I've heard) equally enlightening. I think it wasn't the drugs as much as the attitude, the music, the drugs, and the timing. They all worked together to create the significant cultural shift we knew as the 60s.
Alex3917 15y ago
"Does this passage strike anyone else as over stating LSD's impact?" It's necessarily true, but it's not a stretch either. LSD was arguably the key driver behind the creation of the Internet, silicon valley, the environmental movement, the civil rights movement, etc. It was also the reason why psychiatry adopted the position that mental illnesses were caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. "I think the social revolution of the 60s allowed LSD and the culture it created to flourish and not the other way round as seems to be being argued here." So I think the key to understanding the 60s, the hippies, and LSD is the atomic bomb. Nick Sand and many of the other high level manufacturers and distributors of LSD were the children of high level figures in the manhattan project. Nick Sand's dad was one of the key chemists that developed the bomb. And supposedly the dad of one of the other key acid manufacturers was the co-pilot of the Enola Gray, one of the planes that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. Most of the energy (and bullshit) behind the counterculture in general was a reaction against atomic energy and the culture of the 50s. Clearly the angst would have been there without LSD, but I think that acid became sort of the banner that everyone rallied behind and that united everyone. This is especially true since it's such a prosocial drug; one of its main effects is that it basically makes you care more about other people. (And engage with and collaborate with them, as the case may be.) Of course the reason it became such a part of the culture is that it fundamentally changed a lot of people, especially a lot of people who later went on to contribute enormous amounts to society, on a deeply personal level. You can already read a lot about this and you'll be able to read increasingly more about as that generation gets older and starts retiring and writing memoirs. In general the ways that any drug impacts culture are really subtle, but definitely there. IIRC Terence McKenna talks a bunch about it in this podcast: http://www.matrixmasters.net/salon/?p=153 http://www.matrixmasters.net/salon/?p=153 For what it's worth, I also have a collection of a couple dozen or so links to people talking about psychedelics have changed their lives here: http://bit.ly/qkvs3q http://bit.ly/qkvs3q
- Confusion 15y ago
  Key word in your story: 'arguably', 'supposedly', 'I think'. You're telling a story, that may well be completely fictional. Not a shred of evidence for the key assertions is offered. I have found this to be typical of stories touting the awesomeness of LSD. It's inferring causation from the most likely (in the absence of any evidence, coincidence is most likely) incidental fact that LSD also happened around then.
  - Alex3917 15y ago
    "Key word in your story: 'arguably', 'supposedly', 'I think'. You're telling a story, that may well be completely fictional. Not a shred of evidence for the key assertions is offered." The bit about the atomic bomb actually comes from this about 32 minutes in: http://www.matrixmasters.net/salon/?p=75 http://www.matrixmasters.net/salon/?p=75 My understanding is that the relationship between LSD and the environmental movement and civil rights movement is discussed in Jay Stevens book Storming Heaven: http://psypressuk.com/2010/06/09/literary-review-%E2%80%98storming-heaven%E2%80%99-by-jay-stevens/ http://psypressuk.com/2010/06/09/literary-review-%E2%80%98st... And possibly also in the book Acid Dreams. (Haven't read either, so I'm not sure.) Anyway the link is obviously somewhat tenuous at this point, though as I said I do suspect we'll learn more in the future.

by hartror 15y ago

rufugee 15y ago

Hard to say. There were obviously mushrooms as well which were (at least...from what I've heard) equally enlightening. I think it wasn't the drugs as much as the attitude, the music, the drugs, and the timing. They all worked together to create the significant cultural shift we knew as the 60s.

Alex3917 15y ago

"Does this passage strike anyone else as over stating LSD's impact?" It's necessarily true, but it's not a stretch either. LSD was arguably the key driver behind the creation of the Internet, silicon valley, the environmental movement, the civil rights movement, etc. It was also the reason why psychiatry adopted the position that mental illnesses were caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. "I think the social revolution of the 60s allowed LSD and the culture it created to flourish and not the other way round as seems to be being argued here." So I think the key to understanding the 60s, the hippies, and LSD is the atomic bomb. Nick Sand and many of the other high level manufacturers and distributors of LSD were the children of high level figures in the manhattan project. Nick Sand's dad was one of the key chemists that developed the bomb. And supposedly the dad of one of the other key acid manufacturers was the co-pilot of the Enola Gray, one of the planes that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. Most of the energy (and bullshit) behind the counterculture in general was a reaction against atomic energy and the culture of the 50s. Clearly the angst would have been there without LSD, but I think that acid became sort of the banner that everyone rallied behind and that united everyone. This is especially true since it's such a prosocial drug; one of its main effects is that it basically makes you care more about other people. (And engage with and collaborate with them, as the case may be.) Of course the reason it became such a part of the culture is that it fundamentally changed a lot of people, especially a lot of people who later went on to contribute enormous amounts to society, on a deeply personal level. You can already read a lot about this and you'll be able to read increasingly more about as that generation gets older and starts retiring and writing memoirs. In general the ways that any drug impacts culture are really subtle, but definitely there. IIRC Terence McKenna talks a bunch about it in this podcast: http://www.matrixmasters.net/salon/?p=153 http://www.matrixmasters.net/salon/?p=153 For what it's worth, I also have a collection of a couple dozen or so links to people talking about psychedelics have changed their lives here: http://bit.ly/qkvs3q http://bit.ly/qkvs3q

Confusion 15y ago
Key word in your story: 'arguably', 'supposedly', 'I think'. You're telling a story, that may well be completely fictional. Not a shred of evidence for the key assertions is offered. I have found this to be typical of stories touting the awesomeness of LSD. It's inferring causation from the most likely (in the absence of any evidence, coincidence is most likely) incidental fact that LSD also happened around then.
- Alex3917 15y ago
  "Key word in your story: 'arguably', 'supposedly', 'I think'. You're telling a story, that may well be completely fictional. Not a shred of evidence for the key assertions is offered." The bit about the atomic bomb actually comes from this about 32 minutes in: http://www.matrixmasters.net/salon/?p=75 http://www.matrixmasters.net/salon/?p=75 My understanding is that the relationship between LSD and the environmental movement and civil rights movement is discussed in Jay Stevens book Storming Heaven: http://psypressuk.com/2010/06/09/literary-review-%E2%80%98storming-heaven%E2%80%99-by-jay-stevens/ http://psypressuk.com/2010/06/09/literary-review-%E2%80%98st... And possibly also in the book Acid Dreams. (Haven't read either, so I'm not sure.) Anyway the link is obviously somewhat tenuous at this point, though as I said I do suspect we'll learn more in the future.