The Heart Is A Hungry Hunter
Hunter S. Thompson,
Ashley Smith, and King Solomon
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During the last month, two news items caught my attention. A columnist named Hunter and an Atlanta woman named Smith both faced death and made decisions that affected their family and friends. In the case of Smith, she convinced a killer to not take her life for the unselfish reason that her children needed a mother. In the case of Hunter, while his family was in the house, he called his wife on the phone and shot himself to death. Family members explained later that his last selfish action was consistent with his selfish life.
Hunter had a lot in common with Hippie Liberals. Having grown up a little before the "me" generation, he nonetheless lived his life for pleasure. When pleasure became harder to come by, it was consistent for him to take his life the way he lived it, for selfish reasons. Compare that to Smith. She helped a murderer come to grips with his guilt, causing him to surrender, perhaps saving multiple lives.
Among Hippie Liberals, the term "trailer park trash" means "white nigger." I'd rather have "trailer park trash" as my neighbors any day.
Hunter said he didn't believe in God. It was contrary to his self-centered existence. He wrote in his book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, "We are all wired into a survival trip now. No more of the speed that fueled the '60s. That was the fatal flaw in Tim Leary's trip. He crashed around America selling 'consciousness expansion' without ever giving a thought to the grim meat-hook realities that were lying in wait for all the people who took him seriously. ... All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit....What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole lifestyle that he helped to create ... a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody ... or at least some force - is tending the light at the end of the tunnel."
That sounds a lot like Solomon in his book, Ecclesiastes, which used the word "vanity," 34 times. "Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.....For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" Eccl 2:17-3:21
Hunter and Solomon were given great talents and wisdom, and squandered them on self.
" And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept
not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy... and, behold, all
was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and
madness, and folly..." Eccl 2:10-12
Hippie Liberals and Solomon were given untold opportunities to serve their fellow man, and chose rather to "find themselves."
" The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways" Prov 14:14
"A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself." Prov 18:2
The gift of wisdom that God gave them was taken away from them. The talents
God gave, he took back. " His lord answered
and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that
I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed... from
him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath." Matt
25:26-29
Hippie Liberals and Solomon renounced God and took up drugs as a selfish way of "enlightenment."
"I said to myself, "Come now, I will
test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself."... I said of laughter,
"It is madness," and of pleasure, "What does it accomplish?"
I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my
mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly..."
Eccl 2:1-3
We all have a decision to make. Do we live for pleasure, or for God? Ultimately, your end is determined by what brought you there.When you die, will you leave a group of acquaintances that will grieve your absence? In the case of Hunter and Solomon, the answer, for the most part, was unfortunately, no.
Go To Next Chapter, Gravestones And Bibles In Jury Rooms