Hunter S Thompson wrote one of the great American novels: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I thought it was funny from the first sentence.
He also wrote Fear and Loathing: on the Campaign Trail ’72 (covering the Democratic Party presidential campaign for the Rolling Stone magazine) which I’ve not read, but maybe I should, given that he’s not been writing about our current general election campaign (more's the pity). This is mostly because he killed himself in 2005. His ashes were in classic Gonzo style subsequently fired out of a cannon in a ceremony funded by Johnny Depp.
Thompson would surely have felt at home in our general election, and would have found ways of making it more bearable than I have managed. As he apparently once said "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.”
In coming to a decision on how to vote, many seem have found themselves caught between this fear and loathing (perhaps, apprehension and distaste is a bit more accurate) and have decided to vote for the party whose leader they find pretty distasteful for fear the other lot get in and heap catastrophe upon inevitably mis-managed disaster.
Put like that, the choice seems a straightforward one, but how disappointing it has to be couched so negatively. I keep reading about the dilemma; indeed it is clearly felt by people across parties and across the Brexit divide.
As for me, well, I might have felt more positive about the whole sorry affair had there been a grown-up discussion of environmental issues in the campaign, but there wasn't ...
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