Hyde got a cameo role in Traffic and, like any red-blooded American, changed his convictions instantly in exchange for a bit part, a moment being petted poolside by a bevy of Malibu Stacies. Let them make tearful acceptance speeches that go on for hours, if only they ll stop sending harmless nerds to a lifetime as the maytag of D Block. But here, the nightmare has years to run. The old radio signals keep hitting us, and the zombie colonists do exactly what America circa 1985 tells them to do. So right now they re busily destroying the lives of those who are desperately trying to find a few hours warmth in the poppy.
Happiness is, chemically speaking, opium is the poppy.
Not a syllogism but a resin, a sap, dark brown and smelling like milkweed. It came here with the Chinese. While the Anglo settlers were bashing each other with whiskey bottles, the Chinese were growing the poppy behind their shacks. They were expelled, but the poppy survived. It fought for its life, a tough plant which loves marginal soil, high altitude, scanty rainfall.