The fallacy of the acid culture?

On 2006-12-06 08:51, kaz wrote:
I'm not saying this as someone inexperienced in the subject. If you think LSD is not a drug, then you are wrong. Sure, it can be viewed as a tool. So can Prozac, aka A DRUG. Theraputic value can be found in MDMA, THC, medicinal value in Cocaine, Ketamine, Amphetamine, and there are tons of others. They're still drugs. Leary's research on acid (at least at first) was as a psychiatric drug. Like any other drug, there are good and bad ways to use it, and other than the smugness and sense of spiritual superiority, I see no single attempt to explain otherwise. Quite frankly, I don't know what's more narrowminded - someone who totally goes against any form of drug use while thinking it's normal using cough medicine (which in 99.9% of the cases use ephidrines - related to speed, codeine - related to opium, DXM - evil-friggin'-psychedelic, or combinations thereof), or people willing to change their definition of "drug" just to keep themselves on moral high grounds.

And yes, at least I have the honesty to say - I did drugs. And it was enlightening, frightening, surprising, and most of all, fun. LSD is a drug, because nothing natural makes your brain work like that. It's that simple.

On 2006-01-03 01:39, itsthemechanic wrote:
I've had this quote on my home page for a long time. It inspired the "Crippled" in the "Crippled Music 4 Crippled People" DJ team I did for a while with my friend Hocker.

When you go to a psy party you see a lot of them -- the "permanent cripples", the casualties.

The point is that too many people take psy-trance and the whole acid culture far too seriously. At the end of the day it's just a f**in' party. Not a reason for living. Wake up!

One day you will get older and look back at the time you spent being a "psy head" and ask yourself -- what did I get out of it? I'm afraid the answer will be: very little. You fried a few brain cells and had some good times, but that's about it. You will look around yourself and see people of the same age that built careers, raised families, made positive contributions to the world, and you won't be one of them. Getting high and listening to loud music, at the end of the day, is a pretty selfish habit that benefits nobody. Which doesn't mean it's not fun and you shouldn't check it out -- for a while!

Taking it too seriously is where you go off the deep end. The world has many serious problems and eating acid and flailing your limbs wildly in the air isn't gonna fix 'em. Not in the 1960's and not now, and not ever.

HST saw that, the misguided acid sheep following a mirage. I see it today. The bottom line is, have a laugh, learn from it what you can, and move on, the sooner the better. This world needs you, and not on the dance floor. This world needs you to be sharp, sober, to make positive changes and to stop the madmen destroying it.

Laugh at me now, and we'll see what you'll think when you're 40.

"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix..."

- Alan Ginsberg, "Howl"

On 2006-12-01 12:44, Acidhive wrote:
Well, to me the whole psytrance "culture" means nothing. I don't want to be affiliated with those acidheads out there. To me it's about the music, and all about the music. I'm in this scene for good trance and nothing more. I deeply respect the artists that I find to be very good at what they do and that's making music. All things that take place around the music like taking drugs, going to parties etc. is not for me. I'm 28 now and what has been said here about being 40 and suddenly realizing you've actually done nothing with your life, well, I realized all this when I got into this scene in 1996, when I was 18. And there's the difference between people I guess. Some people just don't go into things without thinking about consequences. In my case the fact that I dislike being in large groups of people or listening to music really loud really helped too ofcourse, I won't deny that.

Anyway, I really agree when the statement is made that a party is just that and nothing more. All that crap about being connected to everyone and stuff you hear people going on about is just horseshit, it's the drugs that make you feel that way. There's no connection at all, because if there was, wouldn't you feel it when you're just going about your business in the average day? And what's more, one more aspect I dislike in this scene is people always going on about making a difference in the world, that 'make love not war' thing. Well, newsflash, that's bullshit as well. You want to make a difference? Fine, get off your lazy drugass and actually GO to some of the places that need help and actually DO something yourself instead of just thinking about it. Thinking never helped anyone and the fact that you're on a drugtrip feeling fine doesn't mean some poor sod in Africa crawling around in the desert looking for food is going to feel the "My God we're all connected man" thing. No really. And hey, I don't aspire to be the change in the world. But at least I don't lie to myself about it. I have my own worries and my philosophy is each to him/herself.

Does that make me a bad person? Maybe some people will think about it that way. I just call it common sense.