#235 | Lucy In The Sky: Capitalism & The Cultural Baggage Of Psychedelics w/ Brian Pace

Intro: 12:55

In this interview, I speak with Brian Pace, PhD, evolutionary ecologist and co-host of the Psymposia podcast Plus Three. We discuss his recently published article at Psymposia ‘Lucy In The Sky With Nazis: Psychedelics and the Right Wing.’ Brian dispenses with much of the cultural baggage that surrounds psychedelic use, including assumption that psychedelic use alone will lead individuals towards more egalitarian and anti-authoritarian attitudes and dispositions. 

“As psychedelics reenter the public imagination on an industrial scale, advocates and reformers need to take a hard look at the assumption that the drugs themselves can bring about social progress. Decriminalization, medicalization, and legalization are advancing, but the socioeconomic context, the setting, in which the psychedelic renaissance unfolds, is capitalism. The climate has been irrevocably destabilized and right-wing extremism has risen. There is certainly room for change.

Yet there have long been vague implications that wider psychedelic use will somehow inspire progressive values, universal siblinghood, and an ecotopia of overlong, platonic hugs. Psychedelics are chemicals carrying a lot of cultural baggage, but there is something freeing, powerful–even dangerous–in embracing the understanding that there is nothing inherent or essential to their character. In any case, evidence mounts indicating that the full spectrum of right-wing ideology, from outright Nazism to conservative-leaning centrism, is demonstrably hospitable to psychedelics–not uniquely endangered by them.” (http://bit.ly/39xvSVn)

Brian A. Pace, PhD is an evolutionary ecologist who specialized in phytochemistry, ethnobotany, and ecophysiology. His interest in life science was piqued as a teenager while experimenting with his own neurochemistry. Brian has long been interested in the burgeoning psychedelic society movement and other grassroots efforts to find alternative policies to the failed drug war. He did field work in Southern Mexico, the US midwestern prairie, and the Ecuadorian Amazon. For more than a decade, Brian has worked on agroecology, food sovereignty, and climate change. More recently, he has taught graduate and undergraduate-level courses on cannabis.

Episode Notes:

- Read ‘Lucy In The Sky With Nazis: Psychedelics and the Right Wing’ at Psymposia: http://bit.ly/39xvSVn

- Subscribe and listen to the Plus Three podcast: https://www.psymposia.com/podcasts/plusthree

- Support Psymposia on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/psymposia

- Follow Brian on Twitter: https://twitter.com/brian_pace

- The song featured is “Forecast” by Lorn from the Rarities album.