The problem with people
Apr. 27th, 2003 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewduckerIn her own journal, Sana said:
Mission was fun, although i did have a big wibble in my head halfway through when i realised that more and more it seems that my friends can only be happy if they've just been laid or are about to be, are fucked on drugs or are fucked on alcohol.
This is something that's worried me for a long time. It's been a point of derision for drinkers that non-alcoholics say things like "I can have fun when I'm sober." - as if it's not possible to enjoy yourself unless you're drunk. Everyone knows that alcoholism is bad, but how many people think about the fact that binge drinking is a nasty sign - that people feel they can't dance or sing or relax around each other unless they've first knocked out a fair number of their brain cells and reduced themselves to gibbering wrecks.
Now, I can understand that a small chunk of the population might be the kind of person who has neuroses about the public and can't cope with being around people. But apparently the vast majority of the population can't cope with the concept of having fun without alcohol. It's not just bad enough that most people feel that their Friday nights should be enhanced by alcohol - it really seems that the huge proportion of people aren't having fun unless they've drunk enough to stop thinking even slightly. Should it not be a warning to people that they can't have fun unless they're drunk? Should it not be a warning to society that it's members don't feel good unless they're incapable of walking?
We're stuck in a civilisation with a largely-christian hangover, where any example of enjoying yourself is taken as freakish. Try singing to yourself, or dancing while _sober_ and see how many people point and laugh or simply become embarassed that, God forbid, someone enjoy that kind of behaviour without being drunk. How many people do you know who will go to any kind of social event that doesn't largely revolve around alcohol?
Mission was fun, although i did have a big wibble in my head halfway through when i realised that more and more it seems that my friends can only be happy if they've just been laid or are about to be, are fucked on drugs or are fucked on alcohol.
This is something that's worried me for a long time. It's been a point of derision for drinkers that non-alcoholics say things like "I can have fun when I'm sober." - as if it's not possible to enjoy yourself unless you're drunk. Everyone knows that alcoholism is bad, but how many people think about the fact that binge drinking is a nasty sign - that people feel they can't dance or sing or relax around each other unless they've first knocked out a fair number of their brain cells and reduced themselves to gibbering wrecks.
Now, I can understand that a small chunk of the population might be the kind of person who has neuroses about the public and can't cope with being around people. But apparently the vast majority of the population can't cope with the concept of having fun without alcohol. It's not just bad enough that most people feel that their Friday nights should be enhanced by alcohol - it really seems that the huge proportion of people aren't having fun unless they've drunk enough to stop thinking even slightly. Should it not be a warning to people that they can't have fun unless they're drunk? Should it not be a warning to society that it's members don't feel good unless they're incapable of walking?
We're stuck in a civilisation with a largely-christian hangover, where any example of enjoying yourself is taken as freakish. Try singing to yourself, or dancing while _sober_ and see how many people point and laugh or simply become embarassed that, God forbid, someone enjoy that kind of behaviour without being drunk. How many people do you know who will go to any kind of social event that doesn't largely revolve around alcohol?
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no subject
Date: 2003-04-28 12:19 am (UTC)The Christian 'thing' is definitely part of it (could be worse though - you could live in Iran). This is why, when Christianity appealed to me, I went to a Pentecostal church. Pentecostals are quite tolerant, and they're not called "happy-clappies" for nothing. As far as they could, these people knew how to hang out and have a good time without indulging in mind-affecting substances.
I don't think it's just a religious hangover though. It's more than that. It's society, and class levels, and disaffection, and more. People still talk openly about getting smashed as if it's a good thing, something 'cool' to boast about. In reality, it's incredibly ordinary, and easy. It's rather sad, I think, if that's all you have to boast about.
I think, like smoking, alcohol, or at least consumption of vast amounts of it, will become more and more taboo. I think it will be a slow thing, but hopefully by the end of our lifetimes we'll see a society that isn't so desperate to 'drown it's sorrows'. And hopefully it won't just have been replaced by something else.