Critique Of The Pranksters’ Movement In The Electric Kool-aid Acid By Tom Wolfe

Counter-culture movements in the 1960s in the U. S. initially began as something new and rebellious, which easily grasped the attention of the younger generations. They always inspired some excitement and aimed towards a certain goal. In an attempt to sweep the nation into opening their eyes to the “real world”, Kesey tries to encourage a free and shared experience among his peers. As the Pranksters movement becomes more popular with the use of the acid tests, reporters and journalists tagged along to see what this new experience was doing to the nation, and many people across the country had mixed feelings. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe reveals what a conservative journalist may determine the purpose of the Pranksters’ movement. Although Wolfe tries to have an unbiased view on the growth and doom of the psychedelic movement, he criticizes the Pranksters’ rejection of society and odd living style but admiring the Pranksters for the creation of what seems to be a new religion. 

The Pranksters love to create their own acid tests and try to push them to the extreme each time, either by creating louder music or adding more visual effects to get the best experience they can, which Wolfe marvels at. After the Pranksters begin gaining attention from traveling around the country in their colorful bus, Wolfe tries to grasp the wider picture of what the Pranksters are trying to achieve. He first describes them as being “into some weird sh*t” as they continue their path to the “unspoken thing”. His initial thoughts of the group show the disconnect between his view of the world and the Pranksters. However, by unraveling the bigger picture, he begins to feel something “religious in the air” and understands that “one couldn’t put one’s finger on it”. Wolfe sees that all the Pranksters, being in their altered mindsets while on LSD, create a shared experience like no other. He specifically stops his narration of the story to draw a parallel between the Pranksters and certain religions, as he explains that “none of the great founded religions began with a philosophical framework or even a main idea. They all began with an overwhelming new experience”. Wolfe’s fascination is shown very clearly with him even quoting what famous scholars have said about the “experience” as related to religion. Additionally, Wolfe acknowledges Kesey as a charismatic and influential leader of the group, which shows commendation for some of the actions of the Pranksters. The Pranksters and Kesey’s ability to share their experiences with each other throughout the various acid tests creates a strong connection to each other and increases the overall positive impact the group has over the nation, just like many religions have done in the past. 

Yet, because the psychedelic movement pushed everything to its boundaries, the counter-culture as long as it had to, due to the chaos that it ensued. People who began taking the drugs saw the world in a different way and became uninterested in the movement they were fighting for. After Wolfe explains why he found the Pranksters so appealing, he begins describing the Pranksters who just joined Kesey. He describes one of the new members, Mountain girl, as coming from a “highly respectable upper-middle-class background in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.”, and later of another member Bradley Hodgeman, who had been a former college tennis star. It is well known by Wolfe’s writing that most of these dropouts and members were part of the middle class. Wolfe places a certain mockery on specifically those people who rebel against the status quo by referring to them as “Beautiful People” because he views this movement as obnoxious and some sort of joke. He imitates a letter that many of these “Beautiful people” would write to their parents and keeps mentioning that everything they are doing is “beautiful”. Wolfe describes the “heart of even the most unhip mamma” as going into “adrenal shriek”. Younger people began to think in the now instead of the future, and that would eventually threaten the wellbeing of their parents. There was a strong dislike to the counter-culture by older generations, and Wolfe excellently tackles that. Moreover, Wolfe demonstrates how he actually feels and condemns all these people later in the book. He describes how many leaders and members of various movements began having a different outlook on the world after taking LSD. These members became so focused on the drug that they stopped worrying about other parts of the world. Wolfe does this to leave us thinking that real change could have been happening, but instead drugs became infused into people's minds. He views Kesey at being primarily the fault for this, although he had admired him earlier. Kesey believed that all of the movements were just “playing into the game”, and in doing so, nothing could actually be accomplished. After Wolfe introduces a few characters who left their leftist movement in the Bay Area, he begins a rant that people in Haight-Ashbury are “piling into pads and living freaking basic, you understand, on greasy mattresses on the floor… slopping up soda pop and sh*t out of the same bottle, just passing it around from mouth to mouth”. He goes on to talk about the disgusting crab lice that begin to live with these people, which gives the purest insight to the reader of Wolfe's strong condemnation of the living style people in the movement have. Wolfe does this to show a contrast between this and other movements, showing that although they were in the same time frame, they were quite different and interfered with each other. As Wolfe tries to put it, all these movements seemed to end due to the way that the rebellious psychedelic movement interfered with its disengagement to society towards all the other counter-culture movements. 

Clearly, not everyone who decides to take acid will instantly be uninvolved with society. Some people were able to become inspired and create their own art and music which is still influential to this day. It is important to see Wolfe's point of view on such an important event because the whole movement itself shouldn’t be portrayed as something completely positive or negative. Ken Kesey was is a notable leader, as he teaches us there is more to life than just our 9-5 jobs, but we will inevitably have to own up to the actions we take and that you will always need some connection to society. He was a true explorer of LSD and what is beyond our consciousness. We can not and should not recreate the whole psychedelic movement ourselves, but there are certain things to gain from it from the sort of rebellion and creating your own path as opposed to following everything that you are told. 

Wolfe is clearly ambivalent about the Pranksters. Use specific language from the text to illustrate what Wolfe admires and condemns about Kesey’s crew.