Good morning Steelers Fans! Last week was a disaster, they say Christ didn't die on the cross afterall and the cavalry aint comin over the hill to do the dishes, or save my life either.
...Wait...I'm reading The Tunnel Back by Lew Yablonsky. Try singin it in a round with your friends. Pretty trippy to read about the early days of Synanon. Yeah I can "relate" or as they say in Synanon, "identify". One of the weird things about it is having an inside understanding of what Yablonsky is describing. Phrases and such, that I recognize as meaningful to me, and situations I was in myself, later in $tr8 Incorporated. Although $tr8 was like Synanon on steroids and for younger kids. I don't even think Synanon was so bad anymore. At least not during the time Yablonsky was there, in the early years. It was for heroine addict-criminal adults to get help and figure out how to live. You had to want it for yourself. To the hard-core junk addicts who were there it was just a better way of life and truly it seems that most of them would have led miserable lives, in and out of institutions and jails etc., without Synanon. I mean these were hard core adult criminal addicts most of whom had already spent a decade or more in prisons like the Lexington, Kentucky federal pen known as the narcotics farm. Where, by the way, all kinds of CIA sponsored mind control experiments also took place, experiments in coercive persuasion techniques, brainwashing, etc. yeah, that was MK Ultra. There is a big difference between the Synanon gang and most of the kids who were in $traight. I mean there were some kids in $tr8 who were older or who had done hard drugs like heroine but not too many. I only ever saw one older guy go through the delirium tremens on front row, when he came in and he was about 25 at that time. I've heard it said that $tr8's own literature says it doesn't accept the physically addicted(hold on I gotta look for my roach). A few kids were avoiding lengthy jail terms by going through the program instead, but generally most of the kids in $tr8 were not drug addicts. We just like to get high and skip school. Aww who am I kiddin I did some bad things, it's true...but my point is that really Synanon and $tr8 are related but should be judged independently of each other. $tr8 was never good but Synanon helped the desperate recover their humanity, whereas $tr8 took the humanity from captive children, and sent them into adulthood alienated and confused. O, I realize that Synanon crossed the line at some later point in time, what with the violence and attempted murder 'n' all, but for several years it seems to have been a great way to heal junkies.
I think that as Chuck grew further and further from his original LSD induced transcendental experience/vision, he lost his ability to see things clearly and took Synanon astray. Some of de Rastas say if you quit smoking pot, evil thoughts will enter your mind. Maybe Chuck needed a transcendental refresher. Maybe he should have prescribed some good acid for himself every few years or so.
I have a weird feeling about the early Synanon. I kinda like it. The sense of community appeals greatly to me, as alienated and confused as I am. I don't have enough structure in my life. I just lay around rebelling against the economy and smokin pot every day.
Fuck $tr8. Fuck Authority