(no subject)

[desperance]

grrm has a post about freedom (with specific reference to the US, but general principles apply all over) and you can read it here. I think you should.

Thing is, though, in the middle there he has a paragraph that reads:

"I want the right to do stupid, hazardous, self-destructive stuff as well; to drink absinthe, smoke pot, smoke tobacco, drive my car without the seatbelt, bungee jump off bridges, watch porn, order my eggs sunny-side up and my hamburgers rare, have unprotected sex, drink unpasteurized milk. I have only done a few of those things, actually (I will leave it to you to figure out which ones), and most I would never consider -- but I SHOULD have the right to do all of them."

And while I entirely applaud the sentiment, I have troubles with the list, because it all seems so innocuous. Most of those he would never consider? George, there's only one item on that list I haven't done, and I'm far from the most adventurous or outlandish of men. I'm not bragging about my raffishness here, far from it - just wondering if there's a different mindset across the sea there, if Americans are perhaps inherently more cautious, even without the impositions of their government?

Comments

[redbird]

It may be a matter of what he wants. I've never wanted to smoke tobacco, bungee jump off a bridge, or eat eggs sunny-side up, in a restaurant or anywhere else: I just don't like runny eggs. I might drink unpasteurized milk, if I were close enough to the cow and trusted the supplier, but it's not something I care about much.

Sure, I've had unprotected sex. I was born in 1963; I wasn't going to get pregnant from sex with another girl, and as far as we knew then, anything you could catch was curable.