THE ORIGINS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS: 1960-72
Societies have traditionally withdrawn from restricting the use of substances using any enforceable approach measures against citizens until the early 20th century when communist countries became the first to introduce restrictions. During the Eisenhower administration, no one would have even dared to utter such terms like, substance abuse or a war on drugs. These utterances would have no doubt resulted in accusations of communism. During the 1950s, the Soviet Union set the stage for the war on drugs by restricting access to a laundry list of chemicals and medications that it felt would arouse political dissent. In response to this, the Eisenhower administration allowed the US to remain free of such restrictions. As a result, drug use became increasingly prevalent during the period after WWII such that the Kennedy administration proposed a program which would have brought education into the classrooms and on television. Had JFK survived to win a second term in office, it is very likely that a bill would have been introduced to launch this process. The Johnson administration overlooked such legislation and took no action to teach the American public. Such action would have changed the course of history and the US would have set the precedent required for a technologically advanced civilization in a free world. During the 1960s, New New Journalism launched an ugly war between television and glossy tabloids like Life and Look magazines. Vying for the same markets, these media shaped our world more than anyone might imagine. For the first time in history, cameras went directly into the front lines of the battlefield to capture the realities of physical combat in Vietnam. Instead of war heroes making it to the cover of Life and Look as had been the case during WWII and the Korean War, the images from the trenches were splashed on the cover of magazines. Televised news carried film footage from the front lines of battle. The public could finally see the brutalities of combat. It made no difference whether the public was drawn to it or whether it was thrust upon them, magazine sales went up and TV ratings increased. The success this produced led camera crews into American urban areas, recording public reaction to the war. Initially staged events paved the way for the mass population to exercise a rebellion that had been stirring since JFK's assassination. Suddenly, America seemed to be a country on fire with draft cards burning on college campuses, bra burning to herald the women's movement; cars were on fire in Detroit, and even the American flag was burning. Cameras recorded everything from the hippie culture to the Stonewall Riots that introduced the gay movement. A rather liberal press was flying in the face of the Nixon administration which was floundering in waves of public criticism. US leadership suddenly was confronted with a leaking faucet that had turned into an exploding dam that could not contain the media. Coverage of the sexual revolution posed a threat to morality in the US. With the walls coming down around them, the right wing conservatives were not clear in understanding that what was actually transpiring was a natural evolution of the media. However, in small town America and among families in urban areas, the new form of media did not have the impact one might have thought. The mass population was simply undergoing a long overdue cultural change and eventually it would have adjusted as it always had. However, the media forced politicians to take action to save their jobs and -- they thought -- to save their country. Moralists will say that the catalyst to action happened during the summer of 1969. On the night after Judy Garland was found dead of a drug overdose in London, the gay community in New York responded to the raids on the Stonewall Bar in Greenwich Village by turning the barstools on the police. Those riots had been the first to spark a nationwide response from homosexuals. To politicians this "perversion" was a threat to the American culture as many speculated it could rise up to engulf the entire population. Alfred Kinsey's shocking revelation in post WWII America indicating that up to 90% of the population could easily abandon families for the carefree gay lifestyle threatened the future of America, and by the end of that dreadful summer, a massive example of that kind of threat was looming in the rain-soaked hillside of New York farmland where the young generation of baby boomers were gathering for a concert of orchestral disharmony, shedding their clothing and wallowing in the mud like primitive wild animals that actually might be there to attend some secret Satanic baptismal rite that would transcend restrictive Christian thought to bring about free love, producing mass homosexual conversion in what might be the end of marriage and the family. TV cameras rolled as the White House joined Americans in horror only to open the tabloid after a never-ending nightmare of bewitching and shameful acts not even imagined during the days of Aleister Crowley or Salam, Massachusetts to find the face of Charlie Manson whose evil smile cast a long black shadow over American beauty and a new generation with the death of the pregnant Sharon Tate, the glamorous new doll of Hollywood's royal brigade. A tug of war in the mudswamp of Bethel Farms just outside Woodstock, NY became the generation's struggle with the devil and a world that was spinning away from order and into anarchy. Traditionally, the trickle of societal misfits that expressed a twisted sexual camraderie for members of their own gender were siphoned off by the Catholic priesthood where they could reflect in a tortured life of celibacy or run off to a career on the sea where they might live their naked frolic fantasy fun in isolation. No one cared. The wise knew that the lives of explorers and spinsters and those who chose careers beyond the home had some private personal meaning. It was something that was known and overlooked. The wise knew that men who entered the military never to leave might have some reasons that were beyond the comprehension of the heterosexual human mind. So be it. It made no headlines that James Buchanan, a president of the United States had lived his life in secret with another man, a Senator. Bachelors lived together for years as women tried to be the one who could turn them into a family. But step by step, this was changing. The private matters that one kept secret were suddenly being bared. A new way of communication had forced its way from the street and into the home. What had been thought to be a rather small insignificant number was now out of control. During the summer of 1969, the USA had conquered the moon, but the youth of the US had been conquered by the devil. Even though the sexual revolution was a term coined about the climate of youth during the 1920s during the advent of radio, television gave the sexual revolution something to look at. To the conservatives, there was a reason why American youth had become unglued and that's because they were probably sniffing it, glue that is. In other words, the drugs were like modern day witchcraft. It had to be and something had to be done about it. The conservatives felt they would be overrun by a society fueled on cannabis, heroin, LSD, and hasish. The generation of baby boomers were flagging for open sexuality, homosexuality, free love, and everywhere drugs were accessible. Physicians were able to promote a smorgasboard of "pleasure" drugs. People -- youth, the successors to the throne -- were dying from overdoses, and it seemed as though the land of freedom had turned into a land of debauchery. There was a way to gain back the youth in modern society, but it was going to take time. It would not happen overnight; it would not take weeks or even months but years, and even decades to see the outcome of their labors, but the group decided that they would be committed... they would be persistent... and they would bring back the values of Christianity under which America was founded. They would unite and work to strengthen every family in America one by one. So, they rolled up their sleeves, made some calculated decisions, and soon they began implementing strategies to retain a better world -- that is, a world that was better for them. They agreed the central theme would be a war against drugs, but they would augment various factions to impede such societal adversities like homosexuality. Without really knowing what Pandora's Box they were opening, they decided to turn a free nation into one in which they had control. To many who were politically conservative, morally repressive, and theologically absorbed, the foundation of the nation they were recreating was sound, strong, and secure. But underneath this logical solution, there was death, AIDS, repression, incarceration, and a total misunderstanding of human nature that we cannot see clearly, even now, because we are hovering in the midst of it. It should always be remembered that the religious force behind this movement was Christianity. But what the veteran generation failed to recognize for some time, was that these values of love, peace, and concern for others were rooted firmly on the other side of the generation gap. There was no need for alarm. But then again, Christianity has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. In the modern definition of the word, Christianity means Capitalism. In the New Testament of the Judea-Christian Bible, Christ loves everyone, embraces everyone, except for one class of people. The only time that Jesus Christ ever lashed out was at the wealthy merchants who made a mockery of God by turning the Church into a trading hall. In fact, outside the US, there are many who praise those who flew planes into the World Trade Center as a symbolism of core Christianity on a larger scale. Ironically, Christians in the US keep searching for Christ's condemnation of homosexuality, when it is the wealthy capitalist that would have enraged Christ to violence as it had. Was the drug war ever a logical solution? NO! In 1971, it only seemed like a logical decision to start an irrational civil war. When you think about it, it is preposterous that a nation that had worked for 100 years to become united, was now tearing itself apart again with another war against itself. In 2007, the war on drugs only shows that the US cannot deal with evolution. And on this day, June 17, 2007, to celebrate the 36th anniversary of the war on drugs is the most disgraceful blow to our society for it is nothing but a cloud of smoke under which this country hides it's bitter prejudice and mistrust. In the US, we have achieved a well-deserved title, we are the country that harbors the anti-Christ and we prove it more and more every day. For the shame is now on all of the US, misfits of the world. As one foreign student recently told the press: "My father begged me not to come to this country. He was so afraid that if I came here, he would never see me again. I have been back twice to see him and each time, his health is worse. He prays for me. He prays everyday. I finished my last (college) exam today and have a ticket to fly home tonight. I won't be back. I love my father too much to return here... The one thing I find disturbing about this country (the US) is that it has a distorted view of freedom. It doesn't teach its people how to live. It allows people freedom to live as they want until they make a mistake and get caught, and then they spend the rest of their lives paying for it." http://www.druguseeducation.org/CivilWarHistory.htm YOU WILL SEE ME - dan le sac vs Scroobius Pip Prozak - Audio Barricade
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