Cue Steppenwolf's "The Pusher":
You know I smoked a lot of grass.
Oh Lord! I popped a lot of pills.
But I've never touched nothin'
That my spirit couldn't kill.
You know I've seen a lot of people walking 'round
With tombstones in their eyes.
But the pusher don't care
If you live -- or if you die.
God Damn! The pusher.
God Damn! The pusher.
I said God Damn! God damn the pusher man.
You know the dealer, the dealer is a man
With a lump of grass in his hand.
But the pusher is a monster
Not a natural man.
The dealer for a nickel
Goin to sell you lots of sweet dreams.
Ah...but the pusher will ruin your body;
Lord he'll leave your mind to scream.
God Damn! The pusher.
God Damn! God damn the pusher.
I said God Damn! God damn the pusher man.
Well now if I were the president of this land
You know I'd declare total war on the pusher man.
I'd cut him if he stands, and I'd shoot him if he run,
And I'd kill him with my bible, and my razor and my gun....
GOD DAMN! The pusher
God damn the pusher.
I said God damn! God damn the pusher man!
Revealed: secret plan to push'happy' pills
4 comments:
We are now living in Philip K. Dick's novel, UBIK.
Yes, I had the strange realization that PK Dick was channeling non-fiction from the future in order for us to understand what was happening to us... I haven't read "Ubik"... but many of his novels were very prophetic. "A Scanner Darkly" is a favorite of mine, probably because of the whole police/thieves as two sides of the same coin motif...
another take on the narcotizing of citizens (this time from our side of the pond):
"Big and Blue in the U.S.A." by James Howard Kunstler:
"Have any reporters noticed how we actually live here in America? With very few exceptions, our cities are hollowed out ruins. Our towns have committed ritualized suicide in thrall to the WalMart God. Most Americans live in suburban habitats that are isolating, disaggregated, and neurologically punishing, and from which every last human quality unrelated to shopping convenience and personal hygiene has been expunged. We live in places where virtually no activity or service can be accessed without driving a car, and the (usually solo) journey past horrifying vistas of on-ramps and off-ramps offers no chance of a social encounter along the way. Our suburban environments have by definition destroyed the transition between the urban habitat and the rural hinterlands. In other words, we can't walk out of town into the countryside anywhere. Our 'homes,' as we have taken to calling mere mass-produced vinyl boxes at the prompting of the realtors, exist in settings leached of meaningful public space or connection to civic amenity, with all activity focused inward to the canned entertainments piped into giant receivers -- where the children especially sprawl in masturbatory trances, fondling joysticks and keyboards, engorged on cheez doodles and taco chips."
Big and Blue in the USA
Thanks for this follow-up, Thivai. I just added it to a post on my blog, which picks up on the P.K. Dick theme.
Michael Hawkins who mentioned Dick also put a post up about him.
Rickenharp you always keep me seeking out good literature that explodes my reality--thanks!
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