I expect Prohibition also had a lot to do with glamorizing men who broke the law and outsmarted the g-Men. And because that was a ridiculous law, that actually made some sense. But that distinction gets lost.
Didn't I mention Prohibition? I meant to. There's a correlation -- perhaps -- to be made between that law, the flouting of it, and the emergence of Jimmy Walker, NYC's famously corrupt (and media-beloved) Mayor. But I think what we're going through now is new, and not good; there is literally NOTHING that could come out about Trump that would shift support away from him, and so no real check on his speech or behavior. Government-by-gangster is not an experiment we want to repeat, and we just barely got through it last time.
I was looking for it and didn't see it, but to be fair I am a bit distracted at the moment and might have missed it.
I'm not particularly worried about the election. But I'm very much not looking forward to the collective global freakout that will inevitably precede it from all the people who are.
Here’s the bit about Prohibition: “I know next to nothing about hip-hop culture, but I think the War on Drugs turning a bunch of young men into criminals—mostly African-Americans and Latinos—was another piece of this. As with Prohibition, how could tons of people not identify with the noble gangster?”
Prohibition had an interesting impact on my grandfather, a pharmacist in Inwood.
He could sell medicinal alcohol...but only by prescription. Local doctors wrote huge "prescriptions" for booze that the doctor and patient would share, sometimes with Grandpa.
However, while liquor was utterly illegal, heroin, among other dangerous drugs, was not. Grandpa could and did sell heroin without a prescription.
In 1938, the Federal Government made heroin and marijuana illegal, and my 10-year-old father helped Grandpa wrap up a big package in brown paper full of these drugs, and Dad boarded a West Side Line IRT local and rode it to South Ferry, clutching this extremely valuable and illegal parcel.
He took it to the US Army Building on Whitehall Street, turned in the parcel with the inventory to a front desk, people signed here, here, here, and here, and Dad took home a receipt.
For the rest of his life, he marveled at how he could have simply sold the parcel and its contents to one of the many drug dealers, and returned home with a very large sum of money to get Grandma and Grandpa out of the debts they faced in the 1938 "Roosevelt Recession."
Around 1938 or 1939, Dad saw "Reefer Madness," that legendary anti-marijuana film, as a "short subject" in the Dyckman Theater, between halves of the double feature.
We all know that it warned viewers that if you smoked marijuana, it made you play the piano loudly and badly, laugh weirdly, go insane, and fling yourself out of an upper-story window in despair and die.
Dad ran back to Grandpa's drugstore and told Grandpa about all the horrible things marijuana did to you. Grandpa was puzzled, as he was a pharmacist, and knew that it basically made you lazy.
Then Dad yelled, "I'm never going to smoke marijuana!"
Grandpa assumed his fatherly stance and said, "That's good, son."
When my wife and I watched the film in the 1980s, she said, "You should see this movie when you're stoned."
I think she's right, but I'm never going to smoke marijuana, anyway. I can't stand the odor.
Re climate change: this is very precisely illustrated by what played out here in Germany last summer. The Green commerce minister (and vice chancellor) Robert Habeck introduced a plan that over a decade or so would phase out home heating that relied on carbon duels (i.e. natural gas and heating oil). The parties on the right, the CDU and the farther right AFD, abetted by the media and the liberal FDP (a partner in the coalition with the Greens!) went into a tizzy, claiming it would mean that homeowners would be required to swap out their heating systems immediately, a falsehood. It worked. Approval ratings for the Greens fell from strong double digits to under 10 within a month or less. Habeck was portrayed (literally) as Satan (which sounds familiar). And when farmers protested earlier in the year, there were gallows erected for him. (All trends in the USA eventually make it to Germany.) And, IMO, because Germans refuse to even CONSIDER changing, not to say giving up, bad habits like cheap energy and 2+ vacation flights a year. Enough of 'em refuse anyhow.
Completely agree with the idea about global warming. Not only does it lead to mass delusions of "Someone strong can get us out of this," but it also worms its way into daily life. Everyone is convinced that someone ELSE will have to adapt their lifestyles, and any challenge to the status quo is a personal threat to one's safety and security.
I know next to next to nothing about hip hop culture, and I think your analysis is correct.
I see a lot of half-assed sociology and half-assed humor writing on substack— you’ve managed to write a piece that’s quality sociology, spiced up with some quality humor. I feel like Luca Brasi, clumsily expressing my gratitude and respect on the day of your piece’s posting.
Great, but I will thank you to not perpetuate the idea that Spain is a place where anything goes. I live in Spain, and I can tell you it's not easy to flaunt the rule of law here.
Hi Michael, Gotcha. I felt I had to say something because Spain gets this rap of being a place where opportunists come and find a bonanza of opportunities because of the laxity and the loopholes, but this is mostly just a screenplay writer's plot device...LOL I imagine your friend likes it here because it is a beautiful country with a stable society.
I expect Prohibition also had a lot to do with glamorizing men who broke the law and outsmarted the g-Men. And because that was a ridiculous law, that actually made some sense. But that distinction gets lost.
Didn't I mention Prohibition? I meant to. There's a correlation -- perhaps -- to be made between that law, the flouting of it, and the emergence of Jimmy Walker, NYC's famously corrupt (and media-beloved) Mayor. But I think what we're going through now is new, and not good; there is literally NOTHING that could come out about Trump that would shift support away from him, and so no real check on his speech or behavior. Government-by-gangster is not an experiment we want to repeat, and we just barely got through it last time.
I was looking for it and didn't see it, but to be fair I am a bit distracted at the moment and might have missed it.
I'm not particularly worried about the election. But I'm very much not looking forward to the collective global freakout that will inevitably precede it from all the people who are.
Here’s the bit about Prohibition: “I know next to nothing about hip-hop culture, but I think the War on Drugs turning a bunch of young men into criminals—mostly African-Americans and Latinos—was another piece of this. As with Prohibition, how could tons of people not identify with the noble gangster?”
Prohibition had an interesting impact on my grandfather, a pharmacist in Inwood.
He could sell medicinal alcohol...but only by prescription. Local doctors wrote huge "prescriptions" for booze that the doctor and patient would share, sometimes with Grandpa.
However, while liquor was utterly illegal, heroin, among other dangerous drugs, was not. Grandpa could and did sell heroin without a prescription.
In 1938, the Federal Government made heroin and marijuana illegal, and my 10-year-old father helped Grandpa wrap up a big package in brown paper full of these drugs, and Dad boarded a West Side Line IRT local and rode it to South Ferry, clutching this extremely valuable and illegal parcel.
He took it to the US Army Building on Whitehall Street, turned in the parcel with the inventory to a front desk, people signed here, here, here, and here, and Dad took home a receipt.
For the rest of his life, he marveled at how he could have simply sold the parcel and its contents to one of the many drug dealers, and returned home with a very large sum of money to get Grandma and Grandpa out of the debts they faced in the 1938 "Roosevelt Recession."
But, being an honest guy, he didn't.
Fascinating! Thank you for sharing this.
You're very welcome.
Around 1938 or 1939, Dad saw "Reefer Madness," that legendary anti-marijuana film, as a "short subject" in the Dyckman Theater, between halves of the double feature.
We all know that it warned viewers that if you smoked marijuana, it made you play the piano loudly and badly, laugh weirdly, go insane, and fling yourself out of an upper-story window in despair and die.
Dad ran back to Grandpa's drugstore and told Grandpa about all the horrible things marijuana did to you. Grandpa was puzzled, as he was a pharmacist, and knew that it basically made you lazy.
Then Dad yelled, "I'm never going to smoke marijuana!"
Grandpa assumed his fatherly stance and said, "That's good, son."
When my wife and I watched the film in the 1980s, she said, "You should see this movie when you're stoned."
I think she's right, but I'm never going to smoke marijuana, anyway. I can't stand the odor.
Re climate change: this is very precisely illustrated by what played out here in Germany last summer. The Green commerce minister (and vice chancellor) Robert Habeck introduced a plan that over a decade or so would phase out home heating that relied on carbon duels (i.e. natural gas and heating oil). The parties on the right, the CDU and the farther right AFD, abetted by the media and the liberal FDP (a partner in the coalition with the Greens!) went into a tizzy, claiming it would mean that homeowners would be required to swap out their heating systems immediately, a falsehood. It worked. Approval ratings for the Greens fell from strong double digits to under 10 within a month or less. Habeck was portrayed (literally) as Satan (which sounds familiar). And when farmers protested earlier in the year, there were gallows erected for him. (All trends in the USA eventually make it to Germany.) And, IMO, because Germans refuse to even CONSIDER changing, not to say giving up, bad habits like cheap energy and 2+ vacation flights a year. Enough of 'em refuse anyhow.
Completely agree with the idea about global warming. Not only does it lead to mass delusions of "Someone strong can get us out of this," but it also worms its way into daily life. Everyone is convinced that someone ELSE will have to adapt their lifestyles, and any challenge to the status quo is a personal threat to one's safety and security.
I know next to next to nothing about hip hop culture, and I think your analysis is correct.
I see a lot of half-assed sociology and half-assed humor writing on substack— you’ve managed to write a piece that’s quality sociology, spiced up with some quality humor. I feel like Luca Brasi, clumsily expressing my gratitude and respect on the day of your piece’s posting.
Karl, that’s really wonderful for you to say, thank you.
Did you know that the actor who played Luca Brasi was not professional? He kept flubbing his lines, so the write it into the script!
I definitely didn’t know that, but it’s easy to believe! It’s funny how he’s one of the most memorable things in the film.
Great, but I will thank you to not perpetuate the idea that Spain is a place where anything goes. I live in Spain, and I can tell you it's not easy to flaunt the rule of law here.
Oh, I only said Spain because I knew the person I was talking to likes it there. I was, after all, trying to make my scheme sound appealing. :-)
It would have been more logical to say “someplace that doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the US,” which I assume Spain very much does.
Hi Michael, Gotcha. I felt I had to say something because Spain gets this rap of being a place where opportunists come and find a bonanza of opportunities because of the laxity and the loopholes, but this is mostly just a screenplay writer's plot device...LOL I imagine your friend likes it here because it is a beautiful country with a stable society.
By the way, when you talk about Skull & Bones, you mean the video game?
Yes, he likes it very much! I think Barcelona best of all, but has been to Madrid and Bilbao too.
I was not speaking of the video game; I was speaking of the Yale student society that is reputed to run the world. IF ONLY! :-)
"That's my family, Melania, it's not me."
Great read!
Don Donald! I kiss-a da ring!