#zerogate

Benzedrine in particular and amphetamine in general were close to being an exact chemical analogue of traditional American virtues—stamina, dedication, hard work, endurance, and the willingness to repeat mindless actions for hours on end. This fact was not ignored by capitalists and captains of industry. Far from discouraging drug use on the factory floor, a number of industrialists—Henry Ford reputedly among them—studied, at least in theory, the effects that the distribution of amphetamines to the labor force might have on the equation between manpower and productivity in manufacturing industries. A drug that would narrow the machine operator’s focus, and make him or her more at one with their machine had to be good for any business from the mighty General Motors to the smallest and most sweaty of garment industry sweatshops. Meanwhile the old-time Hollywood studio bosses like Harry Cohen and Louis B. Mayer didn’t bother to conduct studies. They didn’t even hesitate. They saw amphetamine as a chemical tool that could reduce the budgets on their movies, and they immediately put it to use. They went right ahead and fed speed to their performers to keep them animated on camera during extended shoots. (Or, in some cases, to cure monumental movie star hangovers.) Child actors seem to have been particular targets of this chemical talent enhancement. Both Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney have made no secret of how they were constantly given speed in order to make it through grueling 12- or 14-hour, all-singing, all-dancing shoots. – Mick Farren, Speed-Speed-Speedfreak [zerogate] [via Alive On All Channels]

[zerogate]

— Stephen A. Diamond, "Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity" [zerogate]

— Stephen A. Diamond, Anger, Madness, and the Daimonic: The Psychological Genesis of Violence, Evil, and Creativity [zerogate]

“All storytellers know that two types of time exist: one is the twenty-four hours, the school run, the bill-paying, forever catching-up time of our everyday world; but behind that looms the energies of mythic time, the great cycles that pulse from generation to generation. These great wheels infuse the everyday with nourishment, ‘eternity in a grain of sand.’ The philosopher Plotinus suggested that while the body favors a straight line, the soul hankers for the circle. This mythic, circular time, (which is really no kind of time at all) laughs at the straight line and the alarm clock. Without it—even with all the riches of the world—we can enter the arena of the meaningless. As markets collapse and the world heats up, we would do well to see Coyote’s claws opening holes between the two. We live in an era of tremendous possibility.” — Martin Shaw, A Branch from the Lightning Tree [zerogate]

THANKYOU SO MUCH