The History and Meaning of 420
The History and Meaning of 420
The pothead celebration of 420 (April 20) did not in fact originate as a means of protesting the American government's aniquated and ineffictive marijuana laws as is commonly believed by the weed smoking community. 420 dates back to the San Francisco hippie commune affectionately known as "Haight Ashbury". The name derived from the intersecting streets around which the dystopian hippie homeless shelter was based.
According to legend, a clock attached to one of the buildings at Haight and Ashbury stopped working. The time at which the clock ceased to tick was 4:20. Since this was a hippie commune consisting entirely of the unemployed, it should come as no surprise that no one ever bothered to fix the clock. It is my understanding that the clock still exists at that location in San Francisco, and that to this day the hippies that frequent the area have been too lazy to repair it. Thus, the clock's permanent fixture of 4:20 became a widely recognized international symbol for drug use as parallels were drawn between pot smoking and laziness.
It wouldn't shock me entirely to learn that at some point the hippies discussed fixing the clock. My guess is that they gave up after discovering that they'd have to learn shit about clocks work in order to diagnose the problem and actually begin to fix it.
People across the world now take the occasion of April 20 as a holiday for those who smoke marijuana, the majority of whom are oblivious to the true meaning of the symbol (which is laziness, as opposed to anything pro-marijuana).
The fact is that marijuana is literally worth its weight in gold, and those who smoke it in this day and age cannot afford to be lazy. Think about it, how can one afford such an expensive habit without also having an iron work-ethic? Smoking weed requires money, and today's stoners cannot afford to be lazy. Most have jobs and embrace a capitalistic free-market society. As a matter of fact, most stoners undoubtedly support a more free-market approach to the governance of marijuana, as opposed to the state of government-imposed tyranny that exists today in most parts of the world.
In any case, there you have it. April 20 is no reason for normal hard-working marijuana smokers to celebrate, unless of course they also fancy a complete and utter lack of hygiene as well as poverty-stricken communism. That my friends, is the true history of 420.
Next April 20, those of you who smoke marijuana please keep this in mind. While I won't tell you not to light up, I will ask that in the spirit of capitalism, you refrain from taking the day off work. The dirty, unemployed useless hippes of Haight Ashbury would most certainly not be working on April 20 (or any other day for that matter). That is reason enough for me to not only go to work on 420-day but also to put in that little bit of extra effort just for the sake of principle.
Comment on "The History and Meaning of 420"
User Comments:
The Mix on May 04, 2009
Whether or not your little "history" of 420 is true, you are clearly not the person to be telling, given your painfully narrow minded, judgemental, and downright ignorant opinion of people who don't happen to share your (no doubt equally as ignorant and uneducated) political outlook. You ought to go get a job with fox news, and be a good little capitalist with no bloody idea of what objectivity is.
on April 21, 2010
You should be wearing a KKK outfit and buddying up with Pat Buchanan. Haven't other clocks in the world stopped at times that people have deemed significant and didn't fix? Were they all a bunch of 'lazy hippies' too? Maybe the leaning Tower of Pisa would straighten up if all the 'lazy hippies' would do something about it. I sure hope you don't get paid for this. But then again, if a moron like you can get a paycheck, it gives hope to myself and the other millions that are unemployed.
True Stoner on February 05, 2012
Hah! This entire thing is made up.
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