Rum Diary, The Fear & Turning Your Life Around.

You surely know about Hunter S Thompson, gonzo journalism, seen the movies and the like. I am going to assume that you are. In case you do not, I'd like to know where have you been for last 40 or so years, and point you to the wiki and a bookstore. Do look the guy up, he is one of the best capital J Journalists of the 20th century, at least as far as I am concerned.

I feel that most people know him from the Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, that starts pretty much

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

And consider him nothing more then a wild acidhead. That is only one reason I can think of that when they made The Rum diary into a movie they cut all the important bits out of it, instead inserting that scene with mescaline, which is not in the book, and wasn't in Hunters life. At least not yet.

They've also cut that other journalist guy Yeamon, and colapsed his character with another one.

Thing is pretty early in the book the protagonist Paul Kemp has to do something with the articles about Puerto Ricans leaving the island. And gives us perhaps the first and best explanation of The Fear. Which is pretty important and fetures in the titles of many Hunter Thompson's other books.
Thing is Puerto Ricans are moving away from the island for the same reason that the protagonist left his home for New York and later for Puerto Rico. It is The Fear of the sack.

“Goddamnit, man, I tell you it’s the fear of the sack! Tell them that this man Kemp is fleeing St. Louis because he suspects the sack is full of something ugly and he doesn’t want to be put in with it. He senses this from afar. This man Kemp is not a model youth. He grew up with two toilets and a football, but somewhere along the line he got warped. Now all he wants is Out, Flee. He doesn’t give a good shit for St. Louis or his friends or his family or anything else…he just wants to find some place where he can breath…is that good enough for you?”

Thing is, the Puerto Ricans are much worse off then Kemp was, and yet he shares the same notion, that if they are brave or desperate enough to leave their life behind, they might be able to find something better.

All of Thompsons writing is about trying to find that better place. The American Dream, as it were. But probably culminating on that balcony in the trashed room in Las Vegas, it was all downhill.

I suspect, that to be happy people meed to feel that they are useful. They have an impact on their surroundings. Their efforts bring positive change around them. Traditionally, people who wouldn't or couldn't fit into the established scheme of things would pick up their stuff, and leave for greener pastures.

The frontier. But the problem with the word these days, is that most traditional frontiers are already settled, technology did not bring the desired changes, so a lot people are feeling down. Some of them even not realizing why.

For some, the internet has become such frontier. It even had its own gold rushes (here @disofdis tells about some that he participated in).

Steemit is another such frontier, that promise of being able to change the lives of a lot of people for the better. To rid them of The Fear of the sack. And what is severly lacking in culture these days, but is important on any frontier is the sense of community you can rely on. A lot of them are out there helping people do things that were impossible only a decade or two ago, and that is a great thing!

Too bad Hunter Thompson did not live to see it. I wonder what would he say about it?

This post was inspired by the discussion with @stellabelle, as well as one of her latest Secret Writer stories.