Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Hunter S. Thompson project

If there's one thing I know about Hunter S. Thompson, it's that he always pushed the envelope. The man had a big mouth and would say whatever he felt and believed in an eloquent way, and I loved him for it. I still do.

There are very few people left in the world today that will disregard their own safety and the comfort of general society to expose some sort of truth, and on Feb. 25, 2005, Thompson allegedly shot himself in the head and shut up forever.

It didn't take long for theories about a conspiracy to begin swirling, though, which brings up the question:

Did he finally push the envelope too far?

Reportedly, Thompson was working on a story at the time of his death that would expose the United States Government's involvement in the 911 Attacks; he apparently bought into an admittedly off-the-wall conspiracy theory that was beginning to emerge in the annals of underground journalism, and he spoke openly about his wariness of the government's motives.

Thompson apparently told his friend, fellow journalist Paul William Roberts, in a telephone conversation the night before his death that he'd come across hard evidence that the government had brought down the twin towers. He said that he was scared of the repercussions, and also said, "They're gonna make it look like suicide...I know how these bastards think."

There have been numerous stories concerning Thompson's death, many of them coming from his wife, Anita, who said she was on the phone with him at the time of his death, and that he'd just asked her to leave the gym she was at to come home and help him work on his weekly column for ESPN. She didn't believe that Thompson would commit suicide, and said that he'd been very happy. She also said that she heard no bang from a gun, and no click of the hammer, either, which a newspaper reported her having said soon after the death.

This is a delicate situation, one that may never truly be solved. I'm sure that there's evidence somewhere, someway to figure it out, but I also think that there's some way to figure out who killed JFK, but it'll never see the light of day.
On one hand, this is extremely scary. What if Thompson was killed by the government and didn't take his own life because he had actually found out that the government was involved in 9/11? I can think of few things that would frighten me more deeply than that scenario, and as much as I'd like to believe that my childhood hero did not kill himself, I'd also like to be wrong if I assume that my own government killed thousands of its own citizens so that they could start a war in foreign lands.

At the same time, though, one must look at the other side of the spectrum. What if people are just too ashamed to admit that one of the greatest writers of this or any other generation grew too tired and ashamed of the world that he'd so extensively evaluated through the years that he couldn't take it anymore and decided to off himself?

I've asked myself how often something like this happens, and I guess a lot. I know tons of Kurt Cobain fans that refuse to admit that he shot himself, and I myself will go kicking and screaming to the grave before I say that Elliott Smith actually took his own life. This kind of thing happens with icons, because I imagine open admittance that one of your idols was awesome and then killed themselves can make you sound sort of pitiful. It's hard to have a hero that has done something like that.

I've thought about this and investigated it extensively and wish that I had some sort of proof to go off of. I wish I could talk to Bill Murray or Johnny Depp and see what they think, I'd like to see what his friends and family think. The more I think about it, the less I feel as though he really did kill himself. That's honestly how I've begun to feel, which is disconcerting since I don't consider myself a conspiracy theorist, and I actually take any chance I have to poke fun at them.

I tell myself that maybe the government didn't really have anything to do with 9/11, but wouldn't hesitate to wipe out a false whistle-blower like Thompson that could bring up a lot of skepticism, especially with the amount of disapproval they were already dealing with.

Maybe I'm just telling myself that.

Maybe this is just my view of a best scenario, which is the scariest thing of all for one reason: I know I didn't know Hunter S. Thompson, and I know I never will, but I feel strongly that he wouldn't want me to settle for the best scenario, but for the true scenario.

I think sometimes we lose sight of that, but with so many questions unanswered, how will we ever know?

I guess someone else is going to have to push the envelope now.


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