Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Beware the bastards trying to stop us enjoying a drink

[I have a horrible confession to make. It isn't easy to admit this, but we have to be honest about our mistakes. Not so long ago, the strange and dangerous idea entered my head that perhaps I should "give it a rest", so to speak.

Yes. To stop drinking. At least for a bit, and generally to cut back.

Well, I guess I was sick of severe hangovers, and thinking about all the useful things I could do if I was at home more evenings, and not struggling to avoid falling off a stool in some inner-Sydney dive. Perhaps, without realising it, the constant bombardment of anti-booze propaganda in the media was seeping into my consciousness.

Whatever it was, I was wrong, and I am big enough to admit it. The brutal reality is, I didn't feel any better for not drinking. True, a friend commented that I was "looking a lot better", but really, unless not drinking is going to transform me into Johnny Depp, who really cares?

I still spent large amount of time feeling like crap. I felt more stressed. I didn't get anything more done. In short, I mistakenly blamed booze for the general horrors of life in late monopoly capitalism. Modern life is not nice. In Australia, it is hardly ever even interesting. I recommend a diet of struggle against the status quo, however difficult that seems in Australia. And, in the meantime, a drug like alcohol can be a useful tool to make the seemingly endless rise of barbarism a bit more bearable.

Don't let the propaganda get to you. Below is an article from The Age, called Beware the wowsers trying to stop us enjoying a drink. By James Campbell, it demolishes the myths.