Sun. Feb 27, 2005
Death and Loathing
The death of Hunter S. Thompson has created a bigger stir than I thought it would, in odd ways. For a generation of writers (and many who love the written word), Thompson was a “writer’s writer.” Which is often a construct used to imply “you just wouldn’t understand.”
Thompson was not the type to package himself for easy consumption. In fact, his calculated public persona so overwhelmed his writing, that people have felt free to unload their partisan venom on the newly dead. Some say Thompson is an obvious “lifestyle lesson.” Maybe so. But I’d say some of the reaction to his death says as much about our society as it does about Thompson.
Some merely saw this as an opportunity to score some partisan points because of Thompson’s allegedly leftist views, despite a long life of documented actions that labelled him as much a libertarian as a leftist. But I suppose that’s going to be true for a lot of people when they pass on, from Limbaugh and Coulter to Franken and Moore. And you can make the argument they made that choice with their life, and therefore when they die, their partisan enemies should be expected to slam them.
Because scoring partisan points is Job One and Only, no matter the event.
But I have to ask … do these people not have mothers? Did their mothers never teach them, that no matter how “free” they want to be with their speech, there are times that if you can’t say anything nice … maybe you shouldn’t say anything at all?!? And I would argue that the occasion of someone’s death is one of those times.
From what I’ve read in some places over the past week, Nixon got a friendlier send-off than Thompson has, an irony Hunter would likely appreciate. When Ronald Reagan died, my thoughts included a lot of political baggage I carried from the early 80’s when he was in office. Not pleasant thoughts. But you didn’t see them here, because it simply wasn’t appropriate. I knew a lot of people loved that man, that a lot of people felt a loss, and that’s not something I’m going to toy with.
Of course, I had the right to unload my decades old political baggage upon his death. Of course, I could have. But just because you can doesn’t mean you should. And I’m beginning to wonder if I’m one of the few on the web who believes that is true anymore.
Others clearly believe their right to free speech and unfettered harsh partisan opinions is Okey-Dokey 24-7-365. Like Austin Ruse: “Hunter Thompson shot himself in the head sometime on Saturday and a few things are certain. He was either stoned or hung over, and his work will be forgotten.” From that opening paragraph, it just gets worse, if you can believe that.
Mr. Ruse is but one example of this offered sentiment, and I pick on him for a reason. He’s president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. And the above is the Christian attitude he offers upon a man’s passing to another realm. God’s coming judgement isn’t enough. No, he won’t get there without Ruse passing judgement first. Ruse felt the need to publish a harsh ugly column of condemnation, of the type Saint Peter will hopefully remind him someday.
For the sake of Mr. Ruse’s family, when he passes on, I hope no one uses the occasion to point out what cruel, harsh, and un-Christian things he said about others when they died. I hope no one publicly spits on his freshly dug grave … as he has done to Thompson.
But someone will, to be sure. Because this is what we’ve become as a society. Our right to free speech and partisan venom outweighs any consideration, any appropriateness, any circumstance.
“P-tooi on you-i. And your mourning family,” they blogged gleefully upon his death.
Karma. Look into it.
Published 12:30PM, Sun, Feb 27 2005
Category: Cultural Commentary Media
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Peanut Gallery
In the South, as recently as the early 1990’s, it was iron clad custom for traffic to pull to the side whenever a funereal procession was in progress, but it was never, as far as I know, black letter law to do so anywhere. It didn’t have to be, as it was an obvious accomodation to mourners, and a sign of simple respect and empathy for the family and friends of the deceased.
But lately, that norm of simple decency as evidenced by that long standing custom has seemingly eroded. More than once in recent years, I’ve been honked at or flipped off for pulling right at the approach of a funereal, by some other driver eager to stay on their personal schedule, to the exclusion of any show of simple courtesy.
I still pull over in such circumstances, and wait an extra minute more than I might have otherwise, in order to greive the death of courtesy and grace, too, when I see it. Thanks, Reid, for reminding those that needed it of their manners.
I love HST’s work, but he did write one of the most vitriolic obituaries in recorded history for Richard Nixon. An excerpt:
If the right people had been in charge of Nixon’s funeral, his casket would have been launched into one of those open-sewage canals that empty into the ocean just south of Los Angeles. He was a swine of a man and a jabbering dupe of a president. Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning. Even his funeral was illegal. He was queer in the deepest way. His body should have been burned in a trash bin.
So, it’s not as if there wasn’t a little of the same karma due to go his way.
Damn that Hunter. Setting up Rubes from the grave.
Well, Hunter would then be one of those people I would chastise for such behavior. It’s no defense, but his history with Nixon was long, and he actually spent time with the man (their infamous chats about football). In fact, under Thompson’s bloody obit, there’s a layer of fundamental respect, of the kind Bush’s enemies don’t offer him:
I have had my own bloody relationship with Nixon for many years, but I am not worried about it landing me in hell with him. I have already been there with that bastard, and I am a better person for it. Nixon had the unique ability to make his enemies seem honorable, and we developed a keen sense of fraternity.
But you’re right about the Karma thing. And therefore, so am I.
I personally would have held my uncivil tongue, and allowed the RIP to stand…if his own family hadn’t dragged the body around the pages of the Rocky Mountain News for a couple of days, practically exalting the selfish, selfish act and begging for some form of iconoclastic sainthood for dear HST.
Propriety begins at home, or something like that.
Well, I guess it isn’t just HST, it’s human nature. When someone passes, no matter how dirty or how pure, there’s always someone there to spit on their grave … even the Pope: The Pope has blood on his hands
I doubt if I can make it, but I would like to be in Aspen in August for a memorial of sorts planned by Hunter’s wife.
Re: the Guardian article about John Paul II, why is acurate reporting considered spitting on his grave? I am not familiar with everything the article talks about, but what I am familiar with seems accurate enough.
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Thank you so much for this post – I sometimes weep for the future of our society when I see the lack of simple courtesy that is represented as “free speech”. The level of rhetoric and hateful expression being uttered by too many these days under the guise of speaking freely is horribly depressing.
Don’t these people remember what RIP stands for? Did Thompson do anything so vile that their venom is warranted? Or is this the dark side of the elimination of many of the barriers to public pronouncement that technology has wrought?
I’ve shared this post with both of my children (13 and 20) to remind them of the impact words can have (both for good, in the case of your post) and ill (in the case of those you indite).