Actual Time

According to the FAQ at his URL, this "strange magical journey", that can be a "very enlightening experience" is drinking a certain type of cough syrup until one obtains a high something like taking PCP.

This makes me very angry.

It's my business what he does if his actions harm me or garnish my taxes in some way, other than that I can't fault him. I agree with what the FAQ says philosophically- recreational drug use is a victimless crime, and should not be subject to Orwellian laws. "An it harm none, do what you will."

That doesn't mean I can't speak my opinion about it though, and that quite loud. If he were my friend I would share concern that his pursuit of enlightenment through chemical modification of his mental state is actually destroying his vision of reality instead of enhancing it, and the nirvana he thinks he is progressing towards is actually a deteriorated subset of a greater, truly infinite universe.

But he's not really my friend - I don't know him hardly at all - and it's not my concern as a total stranger to say what he can and cannot do. He has to learn the hard way. I'm worried that learning the hard way will waste a good portion of his youth. But he's very adamantly coccooned himself in a complex mass of philosophical justifications for what he is doing with himself, and I'd come up against that if I challenged him on it. ... I'd be chosing to meet him on his own ground, and that takes a strong position.

It seems to me that people who think drugs are enlightening are refusing to consider some fairly obvious evidence: When they sit next to their friend and babysit them through some trip that supposedly brings them enlightenment, what do they see happening to their friend? Magical zaps of energy? No. Little fluffy clouds of power? No. A faint superhuman glow? No. Clarity of reason? No. What they see is a regular human being acting like a fruit.

They may sit like a lump, or babble or roll their eyes, or maybe puke their last meal, or drool a puddle on the carpet or even claw at the walls, but they certainly don't seem any smarter, tougher, or stronger by the process. They don't seem to be acting in a way that is more aligned with the universe. So why don't people actually think about what a HUGE difference they see between what happens to a person externally, and what's happening inside that person's head?

Why don't these people just compare apples and oranges here and see that there's a discontinuity between what they think happens to them, and what everyone else physically sees happen to them? What if they started thinking "gee, do I look like that much of a dipshit when I do this stuff?" What if they started thinking about REAL time, like "why am I sitting here in this dirty room zonking my brain when I could be out building world peace or some shit?" They may finally realize, "Wait a second, this is WASTING MY TIME !!!"

But personal reasons aside, it's all about being socially accepted. A thing to do with friends. It's a set of friends that I would probably never get involved with. People can call me 'straight edge' all they like. The evidence I base my conduct on is this:

As an artist, chemical mood-alterations that aren't caused by chemicals of my very own internal manufacture can do nothing but distort the integrity and personality of my art.

As a functional, productive entity, the overwhelming evidence is that the loopy pharmaceuticals we narrowly define as drugs these days are categorically a waste of time. I have better things to do.

Like play Starcraft!


Rants