We were somwhere near Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold...

Some may recognize this quote from the movie "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" where Johnny Depp made his first impression on me, while others may recognize this quote from the book "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" where Hunter S. Thompson made his first impression on me. Either way you slice it, this quote has had its influence on me, whether by book or movie, or by author or actor. Either way, it involves Fear and Loathing in or around Las Vegas, and it involves drug use and the drug culture (mainly around the time period of the 1970s, albeit the virtues and mentalities are still much alive and prevelant in today's society). As I sit here bored and comtemplaiting whether or not I should start my "Why Journalism?" paper, I'm reminded of why exactly I chose this field to work in.
Did I choose it because it is entirely easy to bullshit, much like this blog? Perhaps.
Did I choose it because every fiber of my being leans towards writing? Maybe.
Did I choose it because the likes of media influences such as Thompson or "Jerry McGuire"? Possibly.
Every question relevant; every answer ambiguous.
I guess that is why I chose journalism. It is a degree of uncertainty and insanity. No matter what field of mass communication one is involved in, one is still involved with the bullshit that surrounds people. Following them around, asking questions, when usually people have their heads half-way to nowhere and the ones that are smart enough and contain enough common sense to asnwer questions are so blown out on pain killers that it honestly doesn't matter anymore. Thompson had it right: "Getting hold of the drugs had been no problem, but the car and the tape recorder were not easy things to round up at 6:30 on a Friday afternoon in Hollywood."
The hysteria and ludicrous notions that surround these fields of study are so blurred with hard facts that almost anything can be published, almost anything can be said. When it all boils down, though, the question you really have to ask yourself is "was it worth it?" In most cases it is yes, in some cases it is no, although it may be a mixed bag of emotional nonresponse.
Is journalism worth it? More specifically, is Public Relations worth it? I don't know yet, but by the paths blazed forth by those before me, the role models in my mind, it is. The Hunter S. Thompson's, the Johnny Depp's, the Drew Rosenhaus's, the Matt Sosnick's, the fictional characters of Nick Naylor and Jerry McGuire, the Rush Limbaugh's, whoever. The list is endless. But the flip side is that you could end up, or should I say I could end up like some pinhead in a cubicle making a modest sum of money but having no fun in life.
That is why I brought up Thompson and "Fear and Loathing", as sobriety makes the world run...downhill. Tom Robbins summed up life in a nutshell when he said "Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature." Amen to that Mr. Robbins. I'm not saying lets all become heroin addicts, lets all go smoke crack with homeless people, or lets all go try meth for once in our damned lives. I'm saying that if you're not going to have fun with what you are going to do, then you better not do it. I'm saying I'd rather die than go do something I'd rather not be doing. If I have to use some sort of illicit drug to take the edge off while I'm doing that, so be it. The double-helix model of DNA was partially discovered thanks to that wonderful drug acid, many novels were written thanks to alcohol and marijuana, many poems can be accredited to opium, and numerous technological innovations have been devoloped thanks to abstract thoughts that cannot be contained within the logical phallacies which is the realm in which we think. We all know Native Americans passed around the peace pipe and they thought of the most elaborate religious symbols that run true to this day. The Latin Americans knew that cocaine and chocolate come from the same source, both of which led to the utmost forms of happiness.
All of this to say: I want to be in the field of media and writing to live like Hunter S. Thompson. Make money, be abstract, and damn well exist to be one of the coolest and callous people on the face of the planet. We can all coexist on drugs, which is an obscure idea and one that most of white America holds to be sacrilige, however true it may be. America wants us to be what they viewed Thompson: "The idea that two heroin pushers in a white Cadillac convertible would be dragging up and down the Strip, abusing total strangers at stoplights..." And Hunter even said it at the conclusion: "The idea...was prima facie absurd. Not even Sonny Liston ever got that far out of control."