LSD, JFK, CIA, RFK, HMO?

[Tim Strzechowski]

wood jim wrote:

> OK, rather than argue Doug Millison's  argument, please tell us what point
> you want to argue.

To review, this entire thread began thus:

http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0108&msg=244&sort=date
http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0108&msg=245&sort=date
http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0108&msg=246&sort=date

> Doug Millison's argument has not been demolished or even refuted. This is
> not because he is, as you put it, quite right, but because he hasn't made
> an arguemt worthy of refutation. As MalignD and others here have pointed
> out, mostly with kind and gentle words, Doug Millison's statements do not
> add up to an argument at all, but are rather  loose and fragmented
> assertions based on his own experiences, his probability analysis of a
> very limited sample population (mother), two conspiracy accounts of the
> counter culture & LSD & the CIA, appeals to fictions, including Pynchons,
> as well as shifting dates and corrections, and vauge statements of "fact."

Millison drew the ire of a few listers (and I'd be hard pressed to call
MalignD's tirade posts "kind and gentle"), as I recall, because he pointed
out that LSD use was not "common knowledge" at the time of  this novel
(1966).  In my posts, I have  corroborated that with extracts from published
material (and not necessarily internet sources which, quite frankly, may or
may not contain a high level of scholarship or authority).

The bottom line:  Yes, LSD was used, LSD was heard of, and some
prescriptions for LSD were written, all prior to 1966.  But aside from a few
scientists (those who had the relevant credentials), a few CIA officials and
military personnel (only the necessary ones), and a few members of a growing
sub-culture, not *enough* people knew about LSD --- and certainly not enough
people knew about the CIA's involvement with LSD experimentation and
development --- to justify its being considered "common knowledge."  In
fact, in 1966 anyone suggesting that the CIA was involved in such
experimentation would've been dubbed paranoid.  Hell, Kesey was part of the
Menlo Park experiments, and it's likely that even HE didn't know the CIA's
role at that time. It was not until the mid-Eighties, when books like _Acid
Dreams_ and _Storming Heaven_ came out --- books that were based on
documented data and hard evidence --- that people began to truly learn of
the CIA's involvement with LSD development and experimentation.

All of your kind links and posts still do not refute what is a basic fact in
this discussion:  LSD use and LSD experimentation (via CIA) was NOT common
knowledge prior to 1966.  I'd prefer to not re-type my substantiation; you
can find it for yourself at  http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

There's my argument, wood jim.  Again.

Tim

P.S.  Millison used his mother as a basic barometer for "common knowledge"
at the time period in question.  I would, too.  Or anyone I knew, for that
matter, who could provide a good cross-section of the general American
public at the time.  Personally, I don't hang around with too many chemists,
senators, military officials, or counter-culture leaders.  Perhaps I just
don't attend the right parties . . .