deconstructing the narrative

Meet My Brother: Ken Kesey

A brief list/descriptions of the unfortunate comparisons found in the lives of Ken Kesey and Jazzmin Chacon 

 

Ken Kesey

1. Born in Colorado (La Junta) and raised in a household of fundamental Christianity

 

2. 1959 Ken Kesey was involved in a “government drug research program that tested a variety of psychoactive drugs, including LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and amphetamine IT-290. Over a period of several weeks, Kesey ingested these hallucinogens and wrote of his drug-induced experiences for government researchers.  It was this experience that fundamentally altered Kesey, personally and professionally.”

 

3. Kesey enjoyed living life at his own discretion.  Banding together with friends and drugs to celebrate life as they knew it, he and “the Merry Pranksters who openly used psychoactive drugs, wore outrageous attire, performed bizarre acts of street theater, and engaged in peaceful confrontation with not only the laws of conformity, but with the mores of conventionality.  He and the Merry Pranksters became notorious for throwing parties in which certain chemicals mysteriously found their way into the punch.”  They also enjoyed performing “their Acid Tests and use of LSD and other drugs.”

 

4. His addiction to the hallucinogens once prescribed by the government (in the name of research), coupled with his unwillingness to conform, eventually led to Kesey's arrest for marijuana possession.  “When the government made LSD illegal, Ken and the Pranksters fled to Mexico.”  But in 1965, he ultimately was arrested for possession of marijuana. He then served “a five-month prison sentence at the San Mateo County Jail.”

 

Jazzmin Chacon:

1. Predominantly raised in Colorado Springs, the haven of the narrow minded evangelical community, and was also subjected to much evangelical rhetoric, mind warp, and brainwashing.

 

2. Jazzmin discovered a way out of the evangelical fundamentalist conformity and falsely enjoyed a life of marijuana and excessive frivolity.  The summer of ’07 encompassed times of carefree moral abandonment, irresponsibility and hidden deprivation notwithstanding.  Perpetual marijuana use and one night stands were a constant. 

 

3. Those who could not see past the illegal drug use, those who missed the pain and compensational purposes of said drugs found the narcotics unacceptable.  Jazzmin could no longer see beyond the burdens that imprisoned her and those who betrayed her. Suicide attempt proved unsuccessful.

 

4. Methods of psychiatric conventionality were deemed a necessary solution.  Pharmaceutical traditions were mandated.  Implementing the sole use of psychotherapy was not permitted.  Instead, numerous pills have been prescribed.  If one drug proves useless another one quickly becomes its replacements.  Jazzmin is currently being weaned off one drug and now taking three, THREE, doctor prescribed drugs in hopes of maintaining the serotonin levels and gaining increased motivation and energy.  So far all efforts in the way of pharmaceuticals have proven futile.  Jazzmin is at the whim of Big Business and her psychiatrist. 

 

Although these comparisons are not without their obvious flaws, the reality of pharmaceutical drug use as a means in gaining permanent security is blatant.  However, my story is still in process and maybe, just maybe, on the other side of this purgatory I will see the value of all that I currently detest and am ultimately subjected.