As much as I Miss Gore Vidal and Hunter s Thompson, it's almost a blessing that they didn't have to face the last ten or so years of American society and politics. We are now so far removed from the freedoms men like them believed in and fought for wholeheartedly, that it would no doubt break their hearts to witness a single news cycle as of today
Johnny Carson had a great interest in intellectuals like Gore Vidal and in addition to having them on his show would always have dinner together when they were in town....
You have to miss the days when the public was exposed to actual intellectualism and debate in mass consumed media . Buckley versus Vidal is the likes of something will never see again, two sides passionately opposed to one another's view, yet debating it in a sharp crisp intelligent manor.... As we age the next generation, then rhe next, seems more and more foolish, more add more committed to idiocy. I suppose this is how generations work, yet it seems some exceptional aversion to knowledge has accelerated at an unprecedented rate over the last 30 years.....that on our march toward the warmth of dark age levels of stupidity we've reached terminal velocity........ With all our new access to knowledge, an overabundance of Personal Truth has set in, causing us not to question ourselves or whatever /whomever our personal style-appointed jesus may be. Instead we dismiss anything outside this pre-appointed self image, losing not only our ability for growth via self accessment, but our very ability to think critically.
