Bear, the Launchpad for hire. - The Self Esteem of Hunter Thompson

Nicolas Sawyer
Period # 2
12/17/09
The Self Esteem of Hunter Thompson

        Hunter Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was a man who helped created a taste in the developing era of a nationwide counterculture that would be embedded in the subconscious of the developing Western society. His participation as a outspoken supporter of drug legalization and collector of sundry high powered firearms, a reflector of the darker side of 'the American Dream', one who sought to write about and understand the motorcycle gang “Hell's Angels”and forerunner of 'Gonzo journalism'; journalism that is written in the first person where the journalist is a first hand participant of the story, would all spawn a man of wit, skill in writing, understanding of human nature and last but definitely most importantly: a man of skewed self esteem.
        If self esteem in the Nathaniel Branden sense is being happy with who you are and thinking that your existence has meaning, than Hunter, who “would feel real trapped if he didn't know that he could commit suicide at any moment” was a man with an issue. He participated largely in alcohol and psychedelic drug use throughout his life, which formed and expressed himself simultaneously and quoted saying "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me". In the Nathanial Branden sense this was a man of zero self esteem, but he was undoubtedly a man who contributed to a culture against government corruption, for personal liberty and a gold-covered hero on the front of artistic expression in both writing(being an author his entire life) and photography. Hunter Thompson's involvement in political affairs and writing during the 1965-1975 will be my discussion focus as it portrays the main involvement of self esteem in my perspective of Hunter Thompson's personal ideation of himself and the human condition with its involvement to self value. If my understanding of Hunter Thompson's persona is off the target, it doesn't entirely matter because I aim to shoot for the culture that he represented, and its relationship to self esteem.
        Drug use is a widely viewed as connotative of desperation, death but of life and enlightenment. Whether for recreational use or medical use, the spectrum of either positive or negative connotations exist all across recreational/medical paradigms. Some drugs, like psychedelics have more thought provoking entities than more hedonistic drugs like alcohol or cocaine. We may try and safely assume that this is why psychedelics may have been preferred by Hunter Thompson in his strong and broad support of personal freedom and participation in politics. But: mixing both of these drug's meanings within humans existence(as thinking beings that gain their value and being through thinking) as elements that change human thinking, and thus, human existence and Hunter Thompson's belief that human existence was either fatalistic or existential, both forms of drugs were vastly important but not necessary in existence for the reason of existing and understanding existence. That aspect is the step ladder essence for understanding Hunter Thompson's persona in self esteem.
        With regards to self esteem, we have learned several things by analyzing the aforementioned view that Hunter Thompson holds: 1.) Death was not something of serious value personally because it was a fact of life that people will steal, cheat, kill and have “Fear”*. 2.) When death is not valued or worried about, than neither is life. Although he didn't just give up and pass away in a stupor of valuelessness, he said he struggled with his kind of parallel-self that he used constantly to write with using a first-person form. You may even consider it a split personality of sorts. This person is best caricatured as a self-proclaimed drug fiend who was that stupor of insanity, hedonism and the human failure for value in a world of chaos. In conclusion, this personal bout and fight with value that flickered in Hunter Thompson as a dial on a speedometer of a crashing drag racer in a video being constantly fast forwarded and rewound. With the use of drugs and thinking; Hunter Thompson provided both lucidity and escape from a life-filled of torment and bliss of seeking to understand human value through an ego-centered human mind.

        * The “Fear and Loathing in America “, the “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, and the “Kingdom of Fear” all talk about the irony behind The American Dream. This 'Fear' that Hunter Thompson is so famous for, again outlines himself and I think is a inverted perspective of Nathaniel Branden's self esteem that follows the same principles but with black-opposed-to-white results.The dream of freedom and value that all American's seek is just a box that government, society and consciousness put people in. That “Fear” is a persons fear of doing things outside that box. That fear is caring for personal safety, morality, following the law and most importantly, the “American Dream” of consumerism that had pervaded the culture of the time of Hunter Thompson's flourishing. Ridding yourself of this “Fear” is contenting yourself with who you are, separate of external influences, just like Nathaniel Branden's self esteem, but at the same time, filling your head with mescaline, LSD and alcohol while asserting life through a lens of introspection.