Hunter S. Thompson struggled with a concept for most of his literary career- The Death of the American Dream. He toiled with it for decades. At one point it was a prospective book for Random House and though given up on, Thompson himself never quite let it go. The book or perhaps even the concept eluded him. He felt the ‘American Dream,’ as it was perceived in the mid-1900s, had ultimately been corrupted by swine, fowl beasts that fed on greed and force-fed others their ideals as if they were some infallible truths. Truths that if denied would lead to the dissolution of American moral fiber- the fiber that so tightly held together the propaganda of the times. Many have called Thompson an enemy to the moral right. If this is true, then what of his enemies such as Richard Nixon, are they the right and moral ones of that time. No, if Nixon was wrong, and he indeed was, then Thompson was right, and not just to those radicals, fundamentalists; but Thompson was unconditionally right. He didn’t push his beliefs and ideals on others, he only asked to be free from tyrannical interference, and isn’t that what the American Dream is- Freedom.
All around him were the seeds of unrest: the Civil Rights Movement, Watergate, the
failed Vietnam War, constant struggles for First Amendment Rights, and amongst other
things the general sense of a need for change. Finally towards the end of his life Hunter S. Thompson published a series of books, comprised of the bulk of his correspondence spanning his infamous career as the original outlaw journalist, dubbed the Gonzo Papers. These books, as he seems to infer, are his long awaited literacy on the Death of the American Dream. However, many failed to grasp the importance of the masterpiece. It was the best possible insight into the topic- the unedited spewing of the Architect of Gonzo. The best possible way for Thompson to show us about the revolutionary and immensely important time period- which he not only lived in but instrumented the shape of- was to let us into his thoughts, critiques, and personal exchanges published in that collection.
Today the American Dream is letting out its final death rattle. We live in equally pivotal times as Thompson, and we feel charged to chronicle them in a similar manner on this website. So in the true fashion of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson we have a bottle of Wild Turkey 101 and a medicine bottle full of high-grade marijuana, and we are prepared to use it…