OFF but ON: Timothy Leary

[Hardman DK]

>
> Tim had intended to be "the first interactive suicide" on the Internet
> but sadly, cancer overtook him.
>
> See http://www.leary.com
>
> --
> Jon Browne
>

"Sadly"?  Does anyone really want to watch someone kill themselves? Why?
Leary's idea to commit suicide on the net was, to my mind, pretty
ghoulish, and I hope he was simply trying to stir up controversy rather
than really intending to do it.  Actually doing it would have been really
sick, though not as sick as anyone actually wanting to get some
voyeuristic thrill by watching him do it.

I'm kinda sad at Leary's passing, just because it somehow marks the end
of an era (and makes me realise *I'm* getting older!), but I don't think
he ever had anything serious to say after he quit academia. Basically he
was the P.T.Barnum of the counter-culture (actually, many
counter-culturists thought Leary was pretty square). Sorry if I don't
join the love-in on this topic....

Dave

Ob book: "Storming Heaven", by Jay Stevens (on Leary, LSD, & the
counter-culture)