Word: pranksterism
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...experience that united the Merry Pranksters was, of course, LSD. One of the derelictions of Wolfe's book is his failure to delineate the ethical attributes of the LSD experience. He fails to describe the coherency of the Prankster's experience of acid and what they did in the world. But with all the acid that has been taken since by so many different people, the "meaning" of acid in the world, the ethical attributes of acid consciousness are becoming clear...
This is to say that many of the Prankster activities that Wolfe describes with such fanfare of exclamation marks are now common currency. LSD is no respecter of persons, of individuality. Though Wolfe implies that people are copying what the Pranksters did, it seems more likely that the same kind of consciousness and the same ideas come to people who take the same drug...
...Prankster motto was "Never trust a Prankster." But that simply meant "Expect the Unexpected." And then learn to love it. When you take LSD you either learn to groove on the unexpected, or you freak out. The unexpected is always there, right under our noses, and acid makes you see it. No matter how hard the plasterer tries to make the ceiling level there is always room for an A-rab to hide...
...imagine such pranks a Prankster would have to first overcome his own fears, save his own soul, The idea of bringing it all out front is an attempt to examine all the dark corners of one's own soul, to act out one's pent-up hatreds, one's repressed desires, aggressions, fantasies...
These political, ethical consequences are implicit in the Prankster way of life, in the experience of acid itself. And perhaps if Kesey hadn't been busted (he eventually served a year's sentence), he could have invented the kinds of pranks that would help people to be less scared of the world and of themselves...