entry seven

Food, sex, drugs, it's all related...or is it?

As I continue to take in Zappa's opinions, I am struck by his individualistic and separate takes on aspects of society which I am beginning to feel are just constructed to appear related. SEX & DRUGS: the two things you are taught not to do in high school, the two things bad role models are involved with, the two things which have become the ultimate representation of excess in the West. The fact is these things need be neither excessive nor related. I feel angry when I look back at my education on these topics, since the emotional response that I usually felt towards sex and drugs after receiving that education was fear and discomfort. I understand that there is no way to simulate the experience of sex or drug-taking safely in a classroom in the way that we might be able to simulate other experiences, but the negativity was overbearing. It is necessary to inform kids of the risks involved with sex and drugs, but the negativity accompanying this information seems to have the opposite of the intended effect, kind of like Zappa said with legalizing drugs--it simply romanticizes and "spices up" those activities. Now that I am attending university the curriculum I was introduced to regarding substances and sexual intercourse is clearly unhelpful - it was taught like a science class, with very little discussion that I can remember of emotional or political aspects of these topics and little encouragement to develop one's own opinions.

So why are sex & drugs related? I used to think, like a lot of people probably, that the link was mainly indulgence and pleasure. Now I am beginning to see that the discourses that arise from certain places (political figures, institutions) are aimed mainly at controlling people; subduing the masses, as Zappa might say. Getting better at sex will likely result in overall wellbeing, a healthy prostate, and a happy family if you so choose. Getting better at taking drugs will probably get you killed. Consult any sex expert, heck, even walk into one of those wildly uninformative classrooms and the first thing you will hear is never to have sex drunk or stoned. Sex is a heightening of bodily experiences and drugs is more of a way of tweaking them which, if persistent, will result in an eventual dulling of those bodily sensations.

This dulling concept that Zappa introduced was really something to me - I had always known that certain outside forces were trying to control the masses. But it was actually a pretty interesting idea to me that the government (or whoever) was creating a machine that would trick the public into thinking it was their idea, that they want to be stupider, lazier. And that this machine could operate in a fashion that was not totally and blatantly duplicitous. I mean sure, we see an ad with a sexy young woman driving a car, and the sexual implications of that make us want to buy that car. But what about after school when your gut is screaming for fries and you know, you KNOW they are bad for you, but that badness is almost like a little covenant with yourself. Something that makes you feel special. What I'm realizing now is that that may be exactly how some people want me to think.

I think Zappa's rejection of the Catholic church was beneficial to his career in that it taught him from a young age to be skeptical, but I don't think his entire vision was a response to that. I think Zappa was a genius, but that his particular combination of circumstances gave him tools for expression.