Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The War on the War on Drugs

Avaaz is sending a petition to the UN in an attempt to end the farce that is "the war on drugs."
Click the title above to open a link to sign the petition.
I have signed it and offer the following, thus spake I.

From Anti-Social Engineering the Hyper-Manipulated Self:

"I am slightly displeased with this intention "just say no" as it stands. I find the idea of merely saying no to be less than eudaemonic. If I had to give a reason for this fact, the simplest would be confusion and lack of clarity. It is, however, quite easy to point to the virtues to be found by not having drugs be one of our vices.

The golden mean, as we know, moves for each of us on a case by case basis, even from just within inside ourselves. I don't feel the same way about abstaining from marijuana as I do heroin. There must be someone who feels the same way about marijuana in relation to beer. I believe that you can use too much of any drug in much the same way you can be too adamant about legislating that no one can do any drugs. Virtue is about moderation.

If the moderation is imposed, it is not our choice. Morality cannot be legislated, despite our attempts to do so. Forced morality cannot be virtuous.

Therefore, "the war on drugs," like all hyper-manipulation, ony succeeds in producing inauthenticity.

4 comments:

  1. excellent piece!
    signing that list for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think it's safe to say that without choice one cannot attain virtue. Equally the more legislation is involved, the more we divide society into various classes of outlaw, which diminishes the ability to maintain cohesion in a society. It's little wonder that our society is becoming increasingly fractured for no better reason than that disagreements invariably lead to full conflict. Instead of enabling people to make informed choices, each side seeks to force taking sides and using the power of the law to declare the other as enemies.

    Bear in mind that the law isn't intended to control behavior, but rather it is intended to define what power the state has over those that violate it. It prevents nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. anything on its own is surely not evil. It is how we use it. At the end of the day its pretty obnoxious to consider a plant illegal.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting.