I can't imagine this man taking his own life. He seems so full of life and happy .maybe its the conspiracy side of me but I don't buy it. RIP A.H. and thank you
It's an easy explanation. He hit middle age and realized the world didn't work the way he thought it did and that the new youth of the era (the 80's) moved on from his causes. He became a relic of the past still trying to fight yesterday's battles. You hit middle age, you are out of time as far as figuring things out goes. If you haven't succeeded in some major goal by that time, self-deletion, severe regret, depression or all of the above are very likely.
I always figured that name Howie Samuels was a spoof on New York politician Howard Samuels. When he was underground Hoffman reserved travel tickets for some other alternative journalists under the name A. Bremer, suggesting Arthur Bremer, the guy who shot Governor George Wallace.
The New Left died with the end of the protest movement against the Vietnam War. Abbie could not live well in non-revolutionary times. Most others became careerists...
Any alternatives ended when Rolling Stone created a newer Trendier Protest Movement. They created tons of produtcs to sell them as well. But being Trendy looking is most of the Protest.
@danielhutchinson6604 I remember way back when Rolling Stone was about music. By the time the 90s hit, it had reduced itself to a political agenda machine, featuring the slut of the month.
I imagine that the mid-life crisis that led to his suicide was borne of his realization that ultimately everything he was known for was childish BS that didn’t make more than a shallow ding in societal structure. He wound up dead with a whole lot of nothing at a young age because he never learned how to integrate with larger society. Glad he’s gone, frankly.
Well he did help bring down the US effort in Vietnam so that's was a GREAT accomplishment. What have you done? And NOT integrating in some sort of bigoted society is kinda the point.
Abbie Hoffman helped numerous poor Black Southerners register to vote after going to the South to fight to end legal segregation. He helped local churches organize voters and helped disenfranchised Black Americans gain legal support. He assisted in helping create community medical programs in ghettos. He helped numerous young men avoid a draft in a bullshit genocidal war (one which my father is a veteran of and will tell you the same) in both protests and in his books. He organized numerous workers to fight for their rights for better wages and conditions. he raised awareness and organized to help stop the pollution of rivers in Delaware that would have gotten in the drinking water of American citizens. He protested (with Amy Carter, Jimmy Carter's own daughter) the recruitment of CIA agents in universities and was the reason that recruitment program ended. The CIA was recruiting people to help organize the Contras and other death squads in Latin America (which eventually led to the Iran-Contra debacle which proved in court the Reagan Administration funded and trained said death squads breaking US law to do so). Untold numbers of young people inspired by him became writers, activists and artists and that includes me when I started reading him in high school. What have you done for larger society?
He helped lower the voting age to 18, ended a war, created the EPA, civil rights, changed the culture of America from the "fall in line, so what you're told" to actually questioning authority. I would say he did a lot.
