Group Pressure and My View on Druggies

I don't think any judicious appraisal of the human psyche would characterize humans as rational beings. It appears that prehistoric conditions explicitly chose for the opposite of such traits. We don't do something because it's evidently reasonable; we do something because some inherited hardwiring compels us. And often, we act in a way that contradicts the reasonable, such as driving 1000 miles wearing a diaper.

As any self-conscious teenager will tell you, we mostly just want to fit in. So we conform to the behaviors of a selected group, with acceptance in the group a sufficient justification for acting in a particular manner. In sum, peer pressure does not die out after high school, it merely manifests in adults seeking social approval via cohort-specific status indicators. As I'm sure most people are thinking, SWPLs are the most obvious example of this phenomena. They make a show of certain behaviors, such as studying abroad, wearing ironic t-shirts, or eating sushi, in order to message to other members of their group. No matter that getting a moustache tattooed on one's finger is absolutely retarded, that sushi tastes like crap, or that marathons actually kill people - none of that matters because social status, a primary means of propagating one's genes, supersedes reason.

We do stuff so that other people will like us and we have certain opinions so that other people will like us. If you read this blog, you probably understand that I really don't care about ingratiating myself to others. I care about what maybe 20 people think of me and everyone else is largely meaningless. I don't seek animus from others, but neither do I define my happiness on external opinion. Fittingly, the commensurate social memes associated with various behaviors or beliefs largely do not matter to me. In a post entitled I Don't Care about Class and Politics, I wrote:

...the "anonymous" commenter then implies that a divide in culture must create a divide in politics. As if, hand holding must extend from the boardroom, to the voting booths, to the bar. The left's amusing coalition of disparate group undermines this supposition, with upper class, secular, class elitist Jews voting for the same inane policies as the church-going, uneducated, ghetto blacks...If two groups share a common political vision despite holding different positions within that future nation, then so be it.

But, as stated above, I can easily separate the man from his political opinions. If an uneducated hillbilly wants to vote for the same thing I do, then who cares about his snaggle tooth or the fact that we couldn't converse for more than 3 minutes? Just don't bother me for cigarettes at 3 in the morning or try to hit on my daughter.

Sometimes though, I can't help it. I reject something not because I disagree on principle, but because I can't stand the individuals who practice or believe something. In this vein, Mangan posts on his reticence in "buying local":

most of the people doing the encouraging as well as many if not most of the businesses involved are the usual gang of hipsters, SWPLs, left-liberals, environmentalist goofballs, AGW promoters, anti-racists, and people who want to control every aspect of everyone's life in the name of "sustainability" or whatever other faddish nonsense is the latest to come down the pike. In short, I can't see any good reason for allying myself with these people. Most of them will be against everything I believe in, and the few that aren't are too cowered to do anything but go along.

Not exactly the same thing, but note that Mangan considers the sum of a phenomenon in rejecting something with which he sympathizes.

(OK that was an extremely long introduction to get to the intended point.) Basically, this is how I feel about potheads and other drug users. I don't see anything particularly wrong with drug use, even the heavy stuff like meth or heroin. There's nothing intrinsically immoral about doing drugs, especially if one can do so sporadically and maintain a productive way of life, as in cokehead corporate types. In principle, I support drug use because I think people should have the freedom to do whatever they want. Does drug use lead to degeneracy? Sure, but that's oblique to the discussion.

Yet I absolutely hate the wider drug culture and it colors my support of drugs independent of its actual use in a real-world context. I can't stand the kinds of people who actually do drugs, even though I don't think they're doing anything wrong. I hate the listlessness, the pseudo-enlightenment, the niche culture, and the general anti-establishment, soft-anarchy mindset of drug users. I hate how they speak, dress, and act. I hate their sanctimony and their attitude. I hate their passion for something of no value. I hate the general behavior and personality traits of drug users.

So while I sympathize with their position, albeit one motivated by self-interest and not justice, I still celebrate their political and social failings.