Foreigners and Other Strange People: A Thought for the Day

[steepholm]

My friend in Martha's Vineyard had a good 4th of July, but told me sadly that even sparklers are now illegal in Massachusetts, on safety grounds. I wondered whether she might get something of the same effect by firing a handgun into the air instead.*

Of course, that particular combination of laws seems very odd from this side of the Atlantic. But before I congratulate myself that it is not yet so bad with us, I should remember that I live in a country where alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs, but marijuana is illegal. In public health terms, the handgun vs. sparkler comparison may not be too far off the mark.

In both cases, the culprit is of course history, with its long train of consequences stretching far beyond the reach of foresight, which makes every human choice (no matter how obviously right at the time) effectively a pig in a poke. We're constantly playing moral Twister, trying to invent new and increasingly tortuous ways to justify our various incompatible beliefs and practices, till the whole mess falls over in a way that makes the gods (and Thomas Kuhn) chuckle.

Until that point, however, we must live with all the ridiculous and obsolete things that act as a drag on human well-being, from the House of Lords to QWERTY keyboards. Being left-handed, I've actually some affection for the latter, but then I fear that I'm rather ridiculous and obsolete myself. My comfort is, it's the human condition.

* ETA: Deaths from firearms in the United States run at around 30,000 per year. The figure for deaths from fireworks (for the one year I've been able to get hold of) was four. It's not recorded whether any of these involved sparklers, but I sincerely doubt it.

Comments

[sheenaghpugh]

mmm, I dunno... alcohol certainly makes one more obnoxious to others but in my experience of students, cannabis and marijuana were pretty destructive to personality and work rate. One could say, ban the lot, but alcohol is so rooted in our culture that it probably isn't possible, more's the pity, witness prohibition.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'm not calling for any of them to be banned, particularly. Alcohol is, as you say, locked into our culture (like the QWERTY keyboard), which makes it very hard to get rid of even if one wanted to. My point is rather that it's hard to justify rationally a set of laws in which alcohol and tobacco are legal, and marijuana isn't. Last year there were over 100,000 smoking related deaths in this country, and about 10,000 directly due to alcohol - though if you add in the murders, assaults and threatening behaviour (in public and in the home) that are fuelled by alcohol, it looms rather larger as a social problem. By comparison, marijuana is relatively benign, though not harmless. But then, sparklers aren't harmless either.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I totally agree . . . though the fireworks ban I understand, as I've seen house fires resulting from a boozy barbeque party getting out of hand from fireworks fun.