“For a decade Americans have been steeped in the rhetoric of "zero tolerance" and the faith that virtually all problems from drug addiction to lousy teaching can be solved by pouring on the punishment. Even without a Commander in Chief who pledges to rid the world of evildoers, smoke them out of their holes and the like, we would be vulnerable to the temptation to brush aside frustrating complexities and relieve intolerable fear (at least for the moment) by settling on one or more scapegoats to crush. To imagine that trauma casts out fantasy is a dangerous mistake.” WorldHas BeensMomentsProblemWould BeMistakeFantasyImagineTeachingDangerousDrugAddictionCastsTraumaDecadesTolerancePunishmentHolesTemptationVulnerableChiefsSmokeSettlingComplexityCrushZeroImagine ThatRhetoricBrushesFrustratingCommandersPledgePouringDrug AddictionDrug AddictCommander In ChiefScapegoatZero Tolerance Author:Ellen Willis
“Pain heightens every sense. More powerfully than any drug, it intensifies colors, sounds, sight, feelings. Pain is like a glass wall. It is impossible to climb it, but you must, and, somehow, you do. Then there is an explosion of brilliance and the world is more apparent in its complexity and beauty.” WorldFeelingsPainSoundImpossibleColorWallDrugSightGlassesComplexityClimbsExplosionsBrillianceFeeling Pain Book:Journey Source: Journey
“Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find the highest-leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have - whether it's something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet.” RunningGoalTechnologyFourCuttingStageDrugApproachHighestSolutionsIdealsDetermineComplexityApplicationSophisticatedPredictable Author:Bill Gates
“The idea of psychedelic societies is something new. And it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone takes the drug. It merely means that the complexity and the mysteriousness of mind are centered in the consciousness of the civilization as the mystery which it comes from and which it must relate to in order to be relevant.” MindMeanIdeasOrderConsciousnessMysteryCivilizationDrugRelateComplexitySomething NewRelevantPsychedelic Author:Terence McKenna
“None of us are rational economic men as we're supposed to be portrayed in economic theory where mixes of passions, of desires, of moral principles, of self-deception, of altruism, of concern of others, of concerns for ourselves and an interest in our bank accounts. And social policies have to be responsive to the complexity of who we are as people or else, like the war on drugs, they're simply going to fail.” PeopleMenWarDesirePassionInterestMoralFailingEconomicPolicyDrugConcernRationalComplexityAltruismWar On Drugs Author:Dale Jamieson
“I wouldn't want to be so presumptuous as to suggest what my neighbors should or shouldn't do. Great insights might come out of drug dealing and prostitution. I'm not qualified to say. Not that I would promote those practices. I just respect the complexity of their cultural ecosystem and think it would be pretty lame, not to mention fruitless, to waltz in with some kind of reformative agenda.” ThinkingKindDrugInsightNeighborComplexityPresumptuousWaltz Author:Kirsha Kaechele