You had made yourself fully present to life and fully at ease within it. You weren’t oppressed by the past and you weren’t worried about the future. — Edmundson
A fool's paradise. — Wayfarer
I've only gotten sick (really horrible hang overs) from wine. Some of it was good, some of it was rotgut. Didn't seem to make much difference. Never gotten sick from beer, gin, whiskey, rye... — Bitter Crank
As a soft ball Methodist faggot... — Bitter Crank
I think alcohol is a temporary shortcut to removing inhibitions. If you work on your inhibitions by addressing the reasons they exist, you shouldn't need alcohol to open up and 'be yourself'. — CasKev
Plus alcohol brings with it the risk of hangover, drunken mistakes, not to mention anger and depression in some people. — CasKev
Getting inebriated is not comparable to playing a musical instrument or other cultural pursuits. Sure, anything can be 'escapism' but alcohol changes your perception by altering your body chemistry. — Wayfarer
But what occurs to me is that if you want to have a drink, don't try and rationalise it as some life-altering event, because I'm sure that will only have one outcome, and it won't be a good one. — Wayfarer
Well it's not bad faith if one is being authentic: they are opposites. On Sartre's model, it is the waiter more so that he finds to be in bad faith. — unenlightened
Or did you mean that doing so only under the influence of alcohol is foolish? If so, why? — jamalrob
Because it's not real. We're relying on artificially altering your experience, because we can't face it straight up. Surely The Lady Sophia would say that we need to learn to value ordinary experience, to see what is valuable in it, without artificial stimuli. — Wayfarer
First note that by "anxiety" I mean it more in the general existential or Heideggerian sense than simply "social anxiety", although that may be an expression of it. I mean that in drinking we choose to drop this basic anxiety for a while and forget the paraphernalia of who we are, that we might have larger projects in life, that we will one day die and what are we going to do about it? — jamalrob
It's a way of taking up an essentially humorous or playful stance on the world. — jamalrob
I regard the anxiety we are able to leave behind when drinking to be part of the human condition, or part of the condition of alienation that everyone experiences. That is, it's a society-wide phenomenon that is not amenable to self-help. — jamalrob
Everyone says this kind of thing, including me. Whisky makes me depressed for days, wine is fine, and so on. But they say (and they would know) that the kind of alcohol you drink doesn't make any difference, that the difference is how much you drink, which is what varies when drinking different kinds of alcohol. — jamalrob
But what occurs to me is that if you want to have a drink, don't try and rationalise it as some life-altering event, because I'm sure that will only have one outcome, and it won't be a good one. — Wayfarer
Contender for the first clause of the first line of your autobiography? — jamalrob
I think the image you want is the one where the Devil offers Jesus the kingdoms of the world for one act of worship. That's been used to describe the experience of alcoholics. — Mongrel
Smokers tend to maintain the same level of tobacco usage over many years. — Bitter Crank
Because it's not real. We're relying on artificially altering your experience, because we can't face it straight up. Surely Our Lady Sophia would say that we need to learn to value ordinary experience, to see what is valuable in it, without artificial stimuli.
Between my last post and this one, I went out and did a 5 km run (after coming home from work). Now, after three weeks of not drinking, I am doing that run about 80% better than I was able to before. I have been lamenting the fact that I'm getting too old to run - I'm in my sixties now- but suddenly, I can again! Plus I have a feeling of inner clarity and verve. So I'm thinking when my sponsorship drive is over, I'm going to stay dry for a while. — Wayfarer
What would artificial stimuli be -- alien-operated brain probes? — Bitter Crank
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