News & Commentary from the liberterrain...
A Huffington Post article from March, "NFL Draft Class's Marijuana Use 'Epidemic,' Scouts Say" offers a couple of quotes from a Sports Illustrated article.
Apples & Oranges Comparing disease to choice, addiction
to preference, and social justice to individual justice is like
comparing metaphor to reality. (Getty Images)
Seems that "nearly a dozen potential first-round draft choices" at the time "could be red-flagged" for using marijuana during their college years.
Another "talent evaluator" described the trend as "almost epidemic."
Have you ever, in your life, smoked marijuana? If so, did it ever occur to you that you were a victim of an epidemic? Did pot smoking cause little red pustules to form on your face and arms? Did you run a fever and barf up your guts? Did it give you acid reflux and a severe case of diarrhea?
Individuals voluntarily choosing to inhale marijuana smoke is not caused by one person "catching" marijuana use from another. No "marijuana germs" are spread from one person to another. Nobody has ever been diagnosed as having come down with Cheech & Chong's Affliction.
Claiming that marijuana usage is epidemic is like saying, "Adding cream to your coffee has reached epidemic proportions in the United States."
Is there some sort of cream-in-coffee plague we don't know about?
Another mindless misuse of the disease metaphor is "our addiction to oil," such as in this article title: "Obama Vows To End National Addiction To Oil and Coal."
This sounds really serious, but no more so than people with scratches and cuts who have an addiction to antibacterial ointment and Band-Aids, or city dwellers addicted to wearing shoes.
The Obama headline, incidentally, comes from a blog called Earthjustice, which perpetuates the wishful myth that tacking the word "justice" onto a concept magically makes a metaphor literal.
Sorry, folks, but "justice" refers to a human value judgment, making it an attribute that has meaning only for actual living, breathing, thinking individual human beings.
There is no such thing as "earth justice" because "earth" cannot think conceptually and can therefore not conceive of values such as justice vs. injustice. There is likewise no such thing as "social justice" since "social" refers to "society" which is a concept, not a sentient entity.
Libertarians, then, could yearn for an "epidemic of freedom," a widespread "addiction to non-coercion," and maybe even "Libertyjustice."
But libertarians are hopefully smart enough to want the reality, not the metaphors.
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Comments
The last couple of paragraphs made me think "statists are addicted to coercion". They get high on wielding power, winning the attention of journalists and adulation of their fellow statists, and guiding the sheep - I mean people - to a glorious Utopian future. And the money they skim from the river of tax dollars is just icing on the cake.
The withdrawal symptoms are frustration at watching people not do things the way you want them to, anger at seeing the fools ignore your obvious wisdom, and a burning desire to regain the weapon of bureaucracy that had been at your disposal.
If you want to help these poor souls, send money to libertarian organizations. We'll work to get these people out of the destructive environment they're in, and put them in a place where they can start healing.
Neat article, Garry.
The other disease metaphor that has now even had researches looking into it is hand gun violence. Proponents of this nonsense believe gun usage and violence spreads "like a disease" therefore, they argue, it is one.
"Horse hockey!" as Col. Potter used to say on MASH.
It is beyond ridiculous...I cannot wait till this is no longer an issue...LEGALIZE ALL DRUGS!
When they claim that marijuana use is epidemic, what they really mean to say is that disobedience is epidemic.
The power pukes will not tolerate others not following their orders.
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