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IanB I
IanB Feb 21, 2008 20:01:37
Replying to shanshee_allures

What I'd like (and will never get) is someone with some influence to come out and say the bleeding obvious - i.e. that life in a highly geared, media drenched consumerist society tends to make a lot of us bloody miserable a lot of the time. Lets deal with that idea and not all get into a puritan tail-spin about only the most visible of consequences.

Never mind booze and fags (crap drugs both for the most part) what about the prescription drugs, the pain killer addictions and the fact that
white collar London (and not just the media mob) has a major and largely unreported coke problem? You only have to look at how a lot of people drive to see that they are getting an extra "edge" from somewhere. There's not much mind expansion going on, little in the way of inner space travel just a lot of ramping up and damping down of the old angst and anger levels. Reminds me of Waterloo Station in the 70s when they used to play marching music over the "Tannoy" in the morning and soothing light classical in the evening. Back to your hutches folks!

It's beyond social class, gender and age and the young are the least of our worries. Getting off your head with minimal consequences (at least minimal for the vast majority of revellers) is a privilege of youth so to demonise that when it is merely the most visible symptom of a nationwide issue seems bizarre espcially when self-medicating behind closed doors is something of a national pastime.

P PMM
PMM Feb 21, 2008 23:59:10
Replying to IanB

Nicely put.

P Popel Vooje
Popel Vooje Jan 15, 2009 14:28:29
Replying to IanB

IanB wrote:
It's beyond social class, gender and age and the young are the least of our worries. Getting off your head with minimal consequences (at least minimal for the vast majority of revellers) is a privilege of youth so to demonise that when it is merely the most visible symptom of a nationwide issue seems bizarre espcially when self-medicating behind closed doors is something of a national pastime.
Isn't that how the English have always operated at least since the Victorian era, if not earlier? You can have sex all you like, but you can't talk openly about it (especially if it's gay sex). You can smoke opium on a daily basis, as long as you don't do it in front of anybody else. You can get as ratarsed as you wish, but you can't do it in a public place. You can even go insane, as long as you maintain some semblance of social decorum. To paraphrase the title of Erin Pizzey's pioneering tome on domestic violence, scream quietly or the neighbours will hear.

Sweeping problems under the carpet and hoping that they'll go away until they blow up in our faces is something this country has always excelled at.