February 12, 2008.
We traveled to Kent, England and tracked down Ralph Steadman to talk him about the US election, and his close (dead) pal, Hunter S Thompson. The pursuit was challenging; we didn’t have the first idea where Ralph lived and all we had to go on was Hunter Thompson’s words that he lived in a “Castle in Kent.” We were able to gain some ground with the help and warmth from the county’s librarians who were much more useful than Google, and with a bit of our combined detective work, we located the village where Ralph lived. All that remained now was to locate the house. We found ourselves to be temporarily obstructed in our search by sour, poker faced defenders of the creative man. From the local pub, to the post office, to wine merchants, everybody claimed to be Ralph’s best friend but nobody would divulge the exact location of his residence. Having dug out a photograph of his home from a local historical publication which gave a very specific address, we felt certain we had finally tracked him down. But the location turned out to be nothing more than an old folks’ home for people with senile dementia! It seemed like a cleverly laid trap for unsuspecting fans, one of true cunning and wit, pure Gonzo indeed, however, what we believed to be the most cunning of hoaxes turned out to be nothing but sheer coincidence, because the old folks’ home had been built as an exact replica of Ralph’s “Georgian Castle!”
It was only when the local newsagent nonchalantly slipped the correct name of his street (and then sent us packing when he realized we had never met the artist and were tracking him down to write an article), that we struck lucky. It wasn’t long before we were greeted by Steadman himself, having arrived completely unannounced on his doorstep. We knew that it was to be a hunt worth all the trouble.
Despite our concerns, Ralph Steadman turned out to be a complete gentleman. The artist was amiable, interesting, open in conversation, and also provided some essential confirmations in our quest for truth. We learned, most importantly, that the internet rumors are true, that Hunter S. Thompson was indeed investigating the conspiracy of September 11, 2001. With a spookily perfect impersonation, Steadman recalls that it was during this investigation that Hunter called him in October 2004 to say “Ralph, um, uh, perhaps you can come up with some kind of picture that could express this, what is the physical nature of evil?” Steadman still hasn’t come up with an answer for it. Daley suggested he draw a mirror.
Ralph, who is now 71 years of age, has grown away from political matters since he vowed in ’86 to never draw a politician ever again save for their legs, “the only visible thing they stand on.” But with his famous Nixon caricature and friendship with the politically fired Hunter S. Thompson, Ralph still offered us his opinion on who he thinks should win the upcoming 2008 election. “Osama bin Laden,” Steadman said matter of factly, “Oh, I mean Obama.” It was a true slip of the tongue, not meant to be a funny line, but none the less left us giggling before returning to a more serious question.
Daley asked “What do you think about 9/11?” and Steadman replied “They were brave men to do that, and they really believed in what they were doing.” This gave us an insight into the man’s philosophizing, that he viewed the event from the point of view of the government’s official story and was relating to the alleged “Muslim suicide terrorists” as brave, convinced men. He noted that while Thompson was indeed “working on the conspiracy,” Steadman himself “did not think so.” And while he may not have scoured the evidence of the conspiracy or conjured up the same disgust for the inner workings of the system as we have, he agreed that it is nearly impossible to trust anyone these days. He told us that a few days before, after being frightened by an unexpected fish salesman on his property, he scribbled this on an empty cigarette pack: “Trust is the one thing we seem to be needing more of.”
We shared our own opinions and started to explain that a whole generation of young people have examined the event and declared “9/11 is an inside job.” Steadman welcomed the topic, a true testament to his open intellect. But the conversation was cut short. Time was limited because Mrs. Anna Steadman had to get on with her day’s errands and so was rushing to get us out of the door, although we got the feeling that Ralph would gladly have sat drinking tea and talking with us all day. Nonetheless, Anna hurried us through the great foyer and magnificent front door, the Steadmans chirped their good-byes, and before we knew it, we were strolling out of the estate back to our car.
Certainly it was a successful hunt, and we were glad to have confirmed that Thompson was indeed hard at work on 9/11 before his death. But we were puzzled with Steadman’s friendly dismissal of the conspiracy and put it down to a few things. One, the conversation simply wasn’t long enough to discuss the hard, undeniable evidence of the case and perhaps he really hadn’t been introduced to this subject at all. And two, the issue that had been coming up constantly, that Steadman was a spokesman for a different generation with a dated psyche. It seems the more we talk with our artistic, organic growing, green spirited elders, the more we discover that most folks from the older generations look at a few static pillars for structure in their lives, and not much beyond. Their reference points and studied materials are the main world religions, conventional history, and the economy. They study these conventions and try to extract some sort of value, criticism, or moral. These things create the context of their lives and yet most of the intelligent ones find that after studying them, they are at a loss with a vast and seemingly meaningless world.
It is time we start challenging these pillars and coming up with more interesting answers and modes of operation. The next generation must question the media portrayal and political agenda of events and start exercising an atrociously hard earned cynicism toward the cornerstones: religion and politics. My peers and I will need to go substantially further than those of Steadman’s day. Maybe it seems arrogant, but I know there is a lot to be proven with this assertion. The time is more than ripe (in fact turning sour!!) for young people to acknowledge that this world is more f***ed up than it appears on the surface and no amount of corporate funded candidates or green taxes are going to change that. Only we are.
Mr. Steadman can very well be classed as the “eyes” of his generation. He continues to create visual stimuli for his peers and grandchildren of his peers alike. He is an extremely kind, talented, and insightful man, but we have to stop revering former creators and artists. The nostalgia for these icons is wholly prevalent and perhaps preventing us from forging our own paths. The crisis has deepened and the proof is there, and it is now our job to act, yell, write, care, paint, fight.
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