Comments on: Oh, To Be a Lush in England!

By: renminbi

renminbi — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:23:32 +0000

…they have no moral vocabulary. Sorry for the sloppiness.

By: david foster

david foster — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:41:35 +0000

Helen…”drinking too much and eating too little to soak the booze up has been an English problem or centuries”…doubtless true. But that’s only part of the issue here. The other part is the assumption that any unwise or even outright stupid behavior on the part of individuals must result in the creation of a government program to avoid any harm to said individuals from their own actions.

I’m sure I’ve quoted the following passage here before, but it once again seems appropriate:

“To minimize suffering and to maximize security were natural and proper ends of society and Caesar. But then they became the only ends, somehow, and the only basis of law — a perversion. Inevitably, then, in seeking only them, we found only their opposites: maximum suffering and minimum security.”

–Walter Miller, in his great novel A Canticle for Leibowitz.

By: Jim Bennett

Jim Bennett — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:40:04 +0000

The Dalrymple link from Knirirr is definitely worth reading, particularly the, uh…eye-catching method of stopping a taxi for the ride home. I drove a taxi in college days and I have to admit I never saw that method back then.

By: Helen

Helen — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:28:52 +0000

Then again, if you read Shakespeare or Dickens, you will find that drinking too much and eating too little to soak the booze up has been an English problem or centuries. One must not assume that the atypical historical period that lasted, roughly speaking from the 1830s to the early 1950s is what England has always been about. There is a long history there.

By: James R. Rummel

James R. Rummel — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:46:11 +0000

“Presumably the government thinks that giving toys away is cheaper than recruiting more officers.”

I figure that they will give away little red wagons next. That way the conscious drunks can use them to haul their besotted and oblivious buddies home.

I’m going to wait until the Big Wagon Giveaway is initiated before I visit England. Although I don’t drink myself, I will pop into a pub 15 minutes before closing time to try one of those sparkly lemonades they drink over there, and just act drunk on my way out.

New flip flops, bubble blowing pens, lollipops, a little red wagon. Think of the haul! It will be like Christmas, with the cops playing Santa Clause!

James

By: knirirr

knirirr — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:52:42 +0000

The best commentator is Theodore Dalrymple. I recently posted one of his articles relating to our decline in manners.

By: renminbi

renminbi — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:25:19 +0000

The big surprise in Britain, the last few times I visited, was the extent of the public drunkeness on weekend evenings.This I think comes from a political class that has no understanding of its responsibilities. This isn’t the Britain I first saw 40 years ago-the breakdown in public manners is scarcely to be believed. From what I read it seems they have moral vocabulary. The best commentator is Theodore Dalrymple.

By: knirirr

knirirr — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 20:26:35 +0000

From what I read on UK police blogs (e.g. Inspector Gadget I'm sure that the majority of officers of the rank of inspector (lieutenant) or below would love to round up all the drunkards and throw them in a cell. Unfortunately they usually complain of having far to few officers, e.g. less than half a dozen to cover a city centre on a Friday night. They are simply outnumbered when large numbers of truculent piss-artists spill out onto the streets. Presumably the government thinks that giving toys away is cheaper than recruiting more officers.