April 21, 2014

Increasing the Dose: Progressives, Junkies, and Their Mutual Mental/Spiritual Disease

"There comes a time in the routine of an ordered civilization when the man is tired at playing at mythology and pretending that a tree is a maiden or that the moon made love to a man. The effect of this staleness is the same everywhere; it is seen in all drug-taking and dram-drinking and every form of the tendency to increase the dose. Men seek stranger sins or more startling obscenities as stimulants to their jaded sense. They seek after mad oriental religions for the same reason. They try to stab their nerves to life, if it were with the knives of the priests of Baal. They are walking in their sleep and try to wake themselves up with nightmares." -- Chesterton, The Everlasting Man

opiumtent.jpg

"I tell you boys, I've heard some tired conversation but no other OCCUPATION GROUP can approximate that old thermodynamic junk Slow-DOWN. Now your heroin addict does not say hardly anything and that I can stand. But your Opium "Smoker'' is more active since he still has a tent and a Lamp . . . and maybe 7-9-10 lying up in there like hibernating reptiles keep the temperature up to Talking Level: How low the other junkies are ``whereas We--WE have this tent and this lamp and this tent and this lamp and this tent and nice and warm in here nice and warm nice and IN HERE and nice and OUTSIDE ITS COLD. . . . ITS COLD OUTSIDE where the dross eaters and the needle boys won't last two years not six months hardly won't last stumble bum around and there is no class in them. . . . But WE SIT HERE and never increase the DOSE . . . never-never increase the dose never except TONIGHT is a SPECIAL OCCASION." -- Testimony Concerning A Sickness, William S. Burroughs

Posted by gerardvanderleun at April 21, 2014 9:32 AM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

There's nothing that can fix the cold from within.

So says an old schmecker.

Posted by: chasmatic at April 21, 2014 8:27 PM

Never in my many many years of getting high did I ever encounter an opportunity to try heroin. I believe that is proof positive of the existence of guardian angels. The few friends who did get a chance to try it did not survive the experience.
Must be a *hell* of a buzz.

JWM

Posted by: jwm at April 22, 2014 9:43 AM

jwm: Take it from a fool who knows, it is the worst drug I ever came across. It sneaks up on you, "first one's free" they used to say and one fine morning, hooked. No, I take that back. Tobacco and coffee are the hardest drugs for me to put down. Twenty-seven years away from all the crap a person can eat, smoke, shoot, snort, drink, whatever gets it inside ya and coffee and ciggies hold me, I got a monkey on my back like King Kong for the espressos and Amsterdam Shag.

I made it through complete kidney failure a few months back; now I am off the dialysis, yay. I take the chemo for Multiple Myeloma, and I am right with my God. I just can't put down the coffee and smokes, shrug. Go figger.

Posted by: chasmatic at April 22, 2014 12:04 PM