12 April
‘It’s embarrassing when you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on the best seller’s list.’
Political activist and co-founder of the Youth International Party (Yippie) ‘Abbie’ Hoffman died today in 1989. His death was ruled as suicide.
As well as positively promoting liberal drug use, exhorting revolution, random acts of civil disobedience and nominating a pig for president, Hoffman wrote ‘Steal this Book.’
Described by the author in its introduction as ‘a manual of survival in the prison that is Amerika’, it includes advice still handy today:
‘those ridiculous free introductory or subscription type letters that you get in the mail often have a postage guaranteed return postcard for your convenience. The next one you get, paste it on a brick and drop it in the mailbox. The company is required by law to pay the postage. You can also get rid of all your garbage this way.’
The book is hard to come by in libraries or bookshops - just in case people decide to take up the advice of the title but these days the internet has taken all the fun out of it. Download it for free here
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365 days is co-authored by Steve Platt and Fiona Osler
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