Big fan of Thompson - I've been meaning to check that out. Have you read Rum Diary? It's great stuff, I can't wait for the movie.

No matter what you 'edge kids tell me, there's a special nihilistic exhilaration from obliterating your self-control. And self-control is different from inhibitions, for that matter.

rum diary is the shit, read that last year, i think i got through it in 2 days while at work, such a good book.

It's like a psychotic, booze-soaked fever dream on a tropical island.

I'm not trying to put down everybody that drinks. I'm just saying that if the quoted reason for wanting to do something is that it changes you in a way that you find positive, even slightly or temporarily, then why would you not want to reproduce that change and make it a permanent part of you? Alcohol does nothing special.

Man, alcohol is totally special.

But really, I think your arguement is flawed.

alcohol and drugs do change you, they make you feel different, see things differently, think differently. Most people drink and do drugs recreationally because they enjoy these moments. no one wants to spend their whole life thinking, feeling, seeing, etc... like you do on say, acid. That doesn't mean that being on acid or drunk or whatever for a few hours here and there isn't enjoyable. It's fun being drunk and having your inhibitions lowered, but if it was like that all the time, it wouldn't be so special.

I love doing lots of stuff, acid, cocaine, booze, pot, i really do. I do it all in moderation. I do acid a couple times a year, cocaine maybe once every three months or so, i drink and smoke pot weekly. I love the way i feel on all these drugs.....for a time. I like being fucked up sometimes and being able to act goofy, but i don't want to spend my entire life being fucked up and acting goofy.

Really, if you haven't done acid, or gotten drunk, or gotten high, it's really hard to explain i guess.

I didn't mean to jump on the whole straight edge = asshole preacher thing, i just feel like telling a bunch of punks on a messageboard that they're weak for wanting to drink is a bad choice of words.

I just think there's a fundamental misunderstanding here. We're better off just lightly teasing each other, I think. Message boards aren't so hot for settling serious ideological quandaries.

That said, I've never been able to tolerate drunk people if I wasn't drunk, I don't know how you edge people stand it.

The hell they're not! signaldistress and I are having a breakthrough over here! hehe.

I guess my previously expressed thought would be more applicable to alcoholics or other people who genuinely can NOT have fun while being sober. At that point, there's a serious issue that should be addressed in a better way.

I've been drunk many times and, as far as I can tell, high at least once and it does nothing for me. Hangovers suck many times more than being drunk is any fun and I'm still aware of everything I'm doing at the time (yes, I've blacked out before and even then).

My point was just that if lowering inhibitions was all it was about, then stop worrying about what people think/man up/do what you feel like doing and a drug wouldn't be necessary.

This was more of a philosophical argument than practical. I think all drugs should be legal. Whatever anyone wants to put into their body is their business.

i completely agree with your point that if someone can't have fun while sober, then they have a problem.

I understand what you say about inhibitions. I think that maybe for some people, getting drunk or high is a starting point in learning that they can let their inhibitions go when they're not high or drunk. I know that i was a completely different person after i started smoking pot, and not just when i was high, but the way i thought and questioned things.

i don't know, i think that there are definitely people with issues pertaining to alcohol and drugs and self image, but sometimes you don't know you can step out of that box until you get a little push, maybe getting fucked up can be that little push for some people.

on the other hand, i might just be an idiot

I'm too fucked up to tell!

But really, not to sound like a total hippie, but acid was a real eye-opener, too . . . like sparks in my mind, a million little beams of light that connect us all, running backward and forward through time and space . . . it made me feel connected to everything, and that's something that I carried into my sober life as well.

Well, I just sounded like a total hippie.

whenever i did acid i just listened to discharge records full blast at 45rpm and stared off and drooled

something that i carried into my sober life as well

Do you think it was the acid or Discharge that was making you drool? Or are you just saliva-inclined?

I dunno, usually when I dose I'm involved in some hijinks/shenanigans that only encourages weirdness. We like taking the madness to the people.

last time I tripped my friends dragged me to a subway restaurant.


it blew my fucking mind.

The last time I tripped I didn't do much, but a few times before that (earlier this year) I tripped in my buddy's apartment, and we broke onto the roof, then proceeded to go exploring up there . . .
We found the room that housed the elevator machinery . . . the cables and the engine that moved 'em. Ten totally twisted kids, sitting around playing with the elevator machinery to a twenty-story building. That was a blast.
Later, my guitarist found nine cinder blocks lined up along the roof - he was getting ready to toss them one by one onto a Hummer he saw parked on the street below . . . we decided that it might be a bad idea.

i generally these days, only trip out in chattanooga. I don't know why, but everytime we play there, we find acid. I find acid as a completely life altering drug. i know exactly what you're talking about with a million beams of light connecting us all. It really is a mind opener. everytime i trip i have a thousand completely new thoughts that run through my head. god i love acid.