English

Sunil Santoni-de-Reddy

May 2006

United they Stand…Or Do They?

The False Sense of Community among the Merry Pranksters

One of the most prevalent themes in Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is the theme of community. Wolfe, in his portrayal of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, informs readers about group cohesiveness and the individual’s identification with a collective consciousness. We see some of the Pranksters struggle with a sense of belonging to the group while simultaneously maintaining negative attitudes toward the perceived group mind. Ultimately, in this piece of literary journalism, Wolfe makes a critique of Kesey and the Pranksters, indicating what it truly means to be “on the bus.” The journalist depicts the Pranksters as misguided individuals who naively surrender to the manipulative tactics of Kesey, who stands apart from the Pranksters yet creates an illusion of group unity. It is the false sense of looking out for the common good that Wolfe believes contributes to the group’s concluding dismemberment.

Wolfe highlights how the Pranksters view Kesey; the way they reference him sets him in a position of authority. “The Pranksters have two terms for referring to Kesey. If it is some mundane matter they’re talking about, it’s just Kesey […] But if they’re talking about Kesey as the leader or teacher of the whole group, he becomes the Chief” (Wolfe 18). We see from the start of the book that Kesey has developed a strong following in the Merry Pranksters who look to him for guidance. However, despite Kesey’s position within the group as a leader, Wolfe wants us to understand that his image of the group is meant to convey equality and a “doing for the common good” mentality; he will later paint the group in a more truthful light.

The group’s initial unity is reflected in a depiction of Perry Lane: “The Lane was too good to be true. It was Walden Pond, only without any Thoreau misanthropes around. Instead, a community of intelligent, very open, out-front people […] out-front people who cared deeply for one another, and shared…in incredible ways, even, and were embarked on some kind of…well, adventure in living” (52). Wolfe illustrates that Kesey and the Pranksters engage in a communal living arrangement that fosters respect for and dependence on the entire membership. However, the language Wolfe uses perhaps suggests the fallacy of this image. In stating that the “Lane was too good to be true,” the author nudges the reader to accept that in future pages the community’s true colors will reveal themselves.

Wolfe first wants his audience to accept that equality and mutual respect exists in the group because he wishes to recreate how the Pranksters were duped by Kesey to believe in an ideal of the collective consciousness or “group mind,” as it is so often referred in the book. Before they leave on their bus trip to New York, Kesey sets an underlying ground rule: “‘Everybody is going to be what they are, and whatever they are, there’s not going to be anything to apologize about. What we are, we’re going to wait with on this whole trip’” (73). Thus, Kesey establishes a sense of community in the group, making it a law that every member be accepted. Everyone is expected to tolerate and appreciate individual differences, and no one is supposed to feel shameful for acting a certain way. The standard is that as long as you are “out-front,” or open with the group, then you will not be condemned by the group. Kesey also adds to the collective ideal when he states that members “should always be that alert, always that alive to the moment, always that deep in the whole group thing, and be deadly competent” (100). Kesey cites an example of a red rubber ball thrown in the air and how each member should be ready to catch the ball when it is thrown. Thus, the group must be thought of as a team, every member depending on their peers for support. Wolfe continues to enhance the illusion that Kesey creates—that he and the Pranksters are all in it together and are therefore unified.

In an effort to show readers that the utopian image of a united group with equally respected members is false, Wolfe includes stories of want-to-be Pranksters who were ostracized from the group or who dissented through individual acts of agency. Sandy is the first Prankster depicted as being skeptical towards the group: “Sandy feels his first twinge of—what? […] like…they are going to be separated into performers and workers, stars and backstage. Like…there is an inner circle and an outer circle” (75). Sandy does not possess a group-minded, community mentality and views himself as more of an outsider than anyone else in the group. Sandy also recognizes a division or hierarchy in the group, with Kesey at the top of this power structure. We also get a sense that the group is not truly looking out for its entire membership when they abandon Stark Naked after she “had done her thing” (87) and feel no remorse doing so. The existence of dissenters or people who do not feel like members of the collective is evidence that the group is weak; Wolfe foreshadows the future collapse of the group by presenting us with these brief accounts of alienation.

The first direct message that the group is not one collective comes from Kesey after Sandy’s struggle to feel accepted: “‘There are going to be times,’ says Kesey, ‘when we can’t wait for somebody. Now, you’re either on the bus or off the bus. If you’re on the bus, and you get left behind, then you’ll find it again. If you’re off the bus in the first place—then it won’t make a damn’” (83). On the surface, it seems as though the group mind and community are promoted when Kesey asks people to reflect on their level of commitment to the group. However, Kesey states that members are not going to hold each other accountable for keeping the group united; the individual is responsible for finding the bus should they become separated from it. If the group was truly bonded, then they would not let any member go astray. We also see in this passage how Kesey’s manipulative tactics are implemented. Kesey basically gives the Pranksters an ultimatum: he offers a “you’re either with me or you’re against me” message, and anyone who may identify as being “off the bus” is therefore not valued by him. Thus, Kesey asserts his dominance over the group and instills some degree of intimidation in them.

As suggested above, many of the Pranksters become intimidated by Kesey. Wolfe includes the Pranksters’ fear of Kesey as a method of illustrating that the group was being controlled, and therefore he slowly refutes the initial image of the group members as mutually-benefiting and respected in the collective. Sandy’s incites on the reality of the group functioning is presented: “Sandy knew that Kesey was the key to whatever was going right and whatever was going wrong on this trip, and nobody, not one of them who ever took this trip, got in this movie, would ever have even the will to walk up to Kesey and announce irrevocably: I am off the bus” (93). Kesey is represented as having power over the Pranksters; no one is strong enough to challenge his authority as the established leader of the group. Thus, Wolfe suggests that perhaps there are members of the group that question their position “on the bus” and feel set apart but do not do anything to destroy the appearance of a group mind because of the influence Kesey has over them.

Kesey’s charisma and perceived valuing of each group member convinces the Pranksters to trust in his concern for maintaining an equal partnership in the project. Additionally, Kesey is manipulative in the way that he refers to his position in the group. Wolfe writes: “Kesey took great pains not to make his role explicit. He wasn’t the authority, somebody else was: ‘Babbs says…’ ‘Page says…’ He wasn’t the leader, he was the ‘non-navigator.’ He was also the ‘non-teacher. ‘Do you realize that you’re a teacher here?’” (126). Kesey did not want the Pranksters to know that he viewed himself as the source of power in the group, no matter how much they already looked to him as the Chief. Kesey gets people to believe that they have an equal stake in the group and are just as much of a leader or teacher as he is. He uses other people as a cover to deliver his own messages, and he wants the group to identify him as a “non-navigator” so that he is not viewed as masterminding the production. Ultimately, each individual “had his own thing he was working out, but it all fit into the group thing” (126). People surrender themselves to the “group thing,” Kesey’s creation and the entity of which he is the messiah or Prophet. Thus, Wolfe is getting readers to think of Kesey in a different light and challenge his motives and dedication to the collective consciousness.

Wolfe is eventually more aggressive with his depictions of Kesey as living by his own standards rather than those of the group. It should be recalled that Kesey once stated that the group should accept all members and not condemn their individual actions. Kesey betrays this rule when he charges at Sandy after noticing that he took too much acid and was on a bad trip. Kesey states to Sandy: “‘What the hell’s the matter with you […] We wanted to save that acid for the trip back […] if you think I’m going to be your guide for this trip, you’re sadly mistaken,” and Kesey subsequently walks away from the scene (96-7). Kesey does not maintain the group identity, nor does he follow group rules. He clearly judges Sandy for acting independently and expects Sandy to apologize for his actions. Kesey’s condemning of Sandy illustrates that Kesey feels superior in the group—his expectations in the group as the one in control differ from the rest of the group’s expectations. Additionally, his act of walking off is a direct betrayal to the sense of community he has been creating.

Wolfe includes a passage from Joachim Wach’s paradigm on religious formation to establish that Kesey is the central figure of the group with a monopoly of power (128). Wolfe identifies the Pranksters as followers who depend on Kesey to direct their actions. The author once again comments on the false sense of community in the group when he discusses continued dissention among the Pranksters. Wolfe writes: “it always seems like there’s no dissension around here, no arguments, no conflict, in spite of all these difference and in some cases weird personalities ricocheting around and rapping and carrying on. Yet that is only an illusion. It is just that they don’t have it out with one another. Instead, they take it to Kesey” (160). Without their leader the Pranksters would most probably disband. Dissention in the group is suppressed by Kesey, but he only superficially holds the group together if their individual personalities are in conflict rather than fusing into a collective for the common good.

The journalist is successful at portraying the group’s downfall as an evolutionary process. He presents his audience with a picture of a seemingly strong group united under a common goal, and slowly he reveals that group members are dissatisfied in the group and that Kesey is losing a grip on his control over the illusion he has created. Once Kesey becomes a fugitive and leaves the group for Mexico, Babbs takes over and we see more direct evidence that the group mind has been destroyed, if it ever truly existed under Kesey’s leadership. As one Prankster stated, after Kesey left, “certainty and unity no longer existed in our community, although the great idea still kept us together” (267). Still believing in the group mind, and believing in Kesey’s spiritual guidance, the Pranksters initially remained together despite growing tension. Ultimately, “‘without his enthusiasm for our great undertaking, the undertaking itself seemed in some mysterious way to lose meaning’” (269). The Pranksters could not find meaning in their journey for themselves because they had been completely controlled by Kesey to give into a group mind and leave behind individual thought. Once more, then, Wolfe critiques the control that Kesey has over his followers.

With Kesey gone, the Pranksters grow further apart and become individualized once again. The division is most evident after the Life magazine photo shoot when Babbs and others drive off without the rest of their crew. As it is stated, many of the Pranksters got pranked by their own group (284). The division occurred because “the life blood of [the] group flowed away” with Kesey’s departure (285). The remaining members had kicked Pancho off of the bus, to cite another example, and these examples show how the group turned against each other. The members, then, were never genuinely dedicated to community because, if they were, they would have tried harder to maintain it rather than pranking members of their own group. Perhaps there never was a community in place but instead an illusion of community was being kept up by Kesey in order to keep the group together and carry out his plans.

Although Wolfe alludes to the existence of a Prankster power system through Sandy’s supposed paranoia, towards the end of the book—now that Kesey’s true colors have been shown to readers—he states it in more direct terms and identifies the illusion of it all. He writes: “Prankster hierarchy? There wasn’t supposed to be a Prankster hierarchy. Even Kesey was supposed to be the non-navigator and non-teacher. Certainly everybody else was an equal in the brotherhood, for there was no competition, there were no games” (330). Wolfe goes on to list the members of the group that are closest to Kesey. The voice in this passage is critical and mocking. The repetition of the word “supposed” indicates that a scam has taken place and that Kesey has lied about people being equal in the group. Wolfe sheds light on Kesey in this section for manipulating the group and being successful at recruiting people into his “brotherhood.”

Wolfe exposes Kesey’s motives at the end of the book during the Acid Graduation. Kesey’s plan is for the Pranksters to host a massive festival at Winterland where he will be “masked and disguised in a Superhero costume” and present his “vision of the future” to the crowd in attendance (367). The night is meant to serve as Kesey’s grand finale to his movie. The finale is not about the group, but rather he plans on being the center of attention and a superhero. The Pranksters, in Kesey’s vision, are simply responsible for the behind-the-scenes work while he soaks up the spotlight. The Chief’s motives are selfish and therefore betray community.

In conclusion, “the graduation” is anticlimactic and the Pranksters drift off to their respective corners. Kesey loses control of his group because he is unable to maintain the illusion of unity once he implements plans that are strictly self-serving. Although Kesey was able to manipulate the Pranksters to join his organization, when he is removed from the group his hold over them diminishes and individual free-will reigns supreme. Ultimately, community never existed among the Pranksters; the only thing keeping them together was one vast acid trip and a misguided belief that acceptance is guaranteed to people who surrender to a group mind.

Work Cited

Wolfe, Tom. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. New York: Bantam Books, 1999.