On Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:26:08 +0900, "Klompmeester"
<whowhere@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, after considering some belly-button fluf,
wrote:
>
>"Feral Al" <plonked@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>news:fp4p4v$ibs$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Noddy wrote:
>>> "Feral Al" <plonked@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>>> news:fp3s65$57q$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>>
>>>> C'mon now, let's be honest Nod. Early, peer/family induced "use of",
>>>> leads to habit, then addiction, which is not a conscious choice. IMHO
>>>> anyway.
>>>
>>> Not only do I disagree with that, but I think it's a great excuse a
lot
>>> of people would no doubt use to justify their problems.
>>
>> A substantial *reason*, NOT excuse, and a *very* valid one.
>
>Everyone has a choice. Habit and addiction are lifestyle choices that can
be
>avoided.
Think on this:
*Societies* exist because people tend to conform to the "norm" - peer
pressure, if you will. We would not have what we do if this did not
have *some* effect. And that effect is not always for the good of the
individual or even for the good of the society either. If all you have
ever known and seen is people hitting the piss (or drugs, or
whatever), then there is great social pressure to conform to this
"norm" - implicit *and* explicit. And it is the unusual ones - like
John Mac - who see that not everyone has to live that way and actually
have the courage to change. And John may have been more fortunate in
that he *was* exposed to people who did not behave in self destructive
ways.
Or even this: if I am an alcoholic, I am classed as "sick" - it's not
my fault. If I am a smoker, I have a dirty habit that I should give
up. If I am a petrol sniffer or smack-head, I am a dirty, filthy
druggo. And if I am addicted to caffiene, no-one even cares except
that everyone knows to leave me alone until I've had my fix. Yet each
and every one of those is a substance addiction - some more compelling
than others, some more obvious than others, clearly some more
"anti-social" than others, and some are more physical, while others
are more psycological(sp?) (which doesn't, BTW, change the difficulty
level of "getting off" them). Unless and until we can treat them all
the same way, there will *always* be "problems".
As to saying sorry, well. Am I sorry that we treated people badly?
Sure. But we are judging the events of times past by the standards of
today. Perhaps that's all we *can* do, but I'm not entirely
confortable with that because that implies that future generations may
(probably *will*) have to say sorry for what I've done, irregardless
of my intent, and I'm pretty sure that they'll see things *very*
differently. Their different take on my actions does not change the
fact that I am doing what I think is right with the information I
currently have - if it turns out that I was wrong by some future
standard, then so be it. I don't have the luxury of prescience, so I
have to act on what I know *now*, and I might get it horribly wrong,
but that doesn't mean that the vast majority of people wouldn't act
the same way with the same information.
Neil
---
Neil Fisher / Bob Young
Thundercords
personal opinion unless otherwise noted.
Looking for spark plug leads?
Check out http://www.magnecor.com.au
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