DAREN JONESCU

Enjoying the view from Limbo

U.S. Going to Pot Literally, Too

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If politicians figure out there is big money to made in something, they will legalize it — but regulate it at the same time, to ensure they have first dibs on the profits. If politicians are desperate for votes, they will lower themselves to anything to entice anyone, no matter how worthless and mentally decrepit, to support them. And so, in a perfect confluence of the twin primary motives of all democratic politicians — wealth-getting and vote-sucking — we have today’s hottest new point of freedom-fighting in the modern world’s greatest republic: dope.

No metaphor this time, but the real thing. After all, the United States of America has never been given to figurativity or the dainty analogy, so it was inevitable that getting rich on stupidity, and gaining power by “dumbing down” and paying off the voters, would reach this new, most plainly-spoken depth. “We want you to obliterate your mind and your capacity for moral judgment so we can get rich off of your addicted craving for more stupidity. We promise to help you enjoy this self-annihilating and aimless pleasure even more effectively than the other side, so you should vote for us.”

Here is a perfect summation of the moment: Justin Amash, the current figurehead of the Libertarian Party, suddenly singing the praises of Joe Biden, the current figurehead of America’s neo-Marxist insurgency.

Joe Biden, who has been a dope the natural way for decades, and Justin Amash, a clever man who pretends to care about liberty but who has recently staked his political future on the fringe party dominated by overgrown drug-addled navel-gazers, are completely united on this issue of ending prison sentences for marijuana possession, as a first essential step toward legalizing the drug, which in turn will be the first step toward legalizing various other, “harder” drugs. 

Do I disapprove of drugs being legal? Not in principle. What I disapprove of is the politicization of drug use, the political class’ exploitation of the current taste for irresponsible and socially corruptive pleasure-seeking, as a source of financial and electoral advantage for those seeking to advance their power at the expense of the general public’s rationality and decency. 

I oppose government-controlled schooling because it allows (and is intended to allow) the state to manipulate the minds of the citizenry to suit the aims or self-interested needs of the political class and their bankers. The overt political encouragement and legitimization of our age’s obsession with mind-altering drugs — that is, our obsession with unreality and addictive self-abuse — is effectively the next step in public schooling, eliminating the middle man or any pretenses of improving people’s minds or morals. To encourage a man to smoke pot is to discourage responsible citizenship, thoughtfulness, moderation, judgment, and in general his ability and willingness to view the world as something other than his own personal amusement park. I can say this because I have no gain to seek through fudging on the issue. For I live in a country where drugs are absolutely criminalized, and I have never once seen or smelled marijuana during my fifteen years here (in spite of working every day amid thousands of university students), whereas during my four-day visit to Canada this past summer I could hardly turn a corner anywhere without seeing yet another shiny new cannabis shop, open for business. Further, I have no drug-using friends, and I therefore have no need to pussyfoot around the topic so as not to offend someone dear to me. As for readers, I have very few of those anymore, and have long since overcome whatever circumspection I ever had about appeasing them anyway. In short, anyone who reads this and is offended by my tone is welcome to move on from this website and never return. Join the crowd. There is plenty of soma out there for those who need it, but none to be found here I’m afraid.

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