Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-hermes.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!think!mit-eddie!mit-hermes!daemon From: daemon@mit-hermes.ARPA (The devil himself) Newsgroups: net.philosophy Subject: philosophy Message-ID: <2439@mit-hermes.ARPA> Date: Mon, 29-Jul-85 11:17:52 EDT Article-I.D.: mit-herm.2439 Posted: Mon Jul 29 11:17:52 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 31-Jul-85 22:30:14 EDT Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA Lines: 45 From ROBCHRJ%YALEVMX.BITNET@Berkeley Mon Jul 29 11:17:32 1985 Received: from UCB-VAX.ARPA (ucb-vax.arpa.ARPA) by MIT-HERMES.ARPA (4.12/4.8) id AA27753; Mon, 29 Jul 85 11:17:32 edt Received: from ucbjade.CC.Berkeley.ARPA (ucbjade.ARPA) by UCB-VAX.ARPA (4.24/5.3) id AA20268; Mon, 29 Jul 85 08:11:04 pdt Received: from UCBVAX.ARPA by ucbjade.CC.Berkeley.ARPA (4.19/4.36.1) id AA18494; Mon, 29 Jul 85 08:15:59 pdt Date: Mon, 29 Jul 85 08:15:57 pdt From: ROBCHRJ%YALEVMX.BITNET@Berkeley Message-Id: <8507291515.AA18494@ucbjade.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> Apparently-To: Subject: Re: Puritan morality (legal drinking age) References: <524@gargoyle.UUCP> > One possible reason colleges are banning alcohol is that alcohol abuse is now > a very widespread problem among students, and the colleges don't want to > foster the problem in any way. This seems sensible enough, considering that they're only obeying the law. I would be hard pressed to come up with a viable excuse for colleges to allow their students to *break* the law with impunity. - > To those of you who object to the 21 drinking age: If you can't enjoy your > college years and the company of your friends without alcohol or other > drugs, you are setting yourself up for serious problems later on. If you > think it's tough being 20 and dry, wait till you're 40 and alcoholic. This, on the other hand, is a very good example of the "puritan" (as opposed to Puritan) morality that we're talking about. Ignoring the political questions the law raises (why can I own all the guns I want at 18 but not have a glass of wine with dinner until 21?), we should ask: does the use of alcohol or other drugs lead inexorably to addiction/alcoholism/serious problems? Does the desire to use alcohol/marijuana/Valium imply that one can't be happy at all without them? Does that desire imply weakness of will or moral turpitude? Is the use of alcohol/drugs evil, or merely unwise, or both, or neither? I, for one, intend to be neither dry now nor alcoholic later. Chris Roberson Calhoun College, Yale University "What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding?"