I can respect your difference of opinion.
I've never had any erectile dysfunction drunk. lol
I can see a small amount of alcohol being a truth serum. But i've never seen a hammered person speaking anything but nonsense. Get someone to a .4 alcohol level and if they are not dead they will be wetting and crapping themselves.
As for holding them accountable... I believe people should be held accountable for the decision to get drunk. To me thats where it starts to end. I've had a buddy take a swing at me when he was drunk once. One the nicest men I've ever known. I know this man loves me like a brother. He was not clear minded. Our punishment society prefers to blame stuff we feel we can control to justify our need for a sense of vengeance. We are not comfortable with things we can't put into a black or white box. So we tend to have these personal accountability rules because it makes us feel better and lets us attempt to live in a black or white world. The gray stuff in between is what scares us. We prefer to operate with a mindset that I can control these things for myself so everyone else can also. In my opinion this is where we fall short. This mindset leads to punishment over rehabilitation. Successful societies around the world have shown that love (empathy and compassion) and rehabilitation leads to better outcomes than punishment. Check the US reincarnation rate vs more compassionate nations for proof.
Just my opinions of course. Thanks for sharing yours.
I think you make some interesting points, but you are playing fast and loose with the relationship between accountability and revenge. I like the concepts of forgiveness, mercy, grace and rehabilitation—-but those are applied at the discretion of judges/victims....not a violator who just shrugs and says, “I’m sorry.”
The core issue at hand is the life balance of predictability. -
- If I work hard, I should have enough to get by.
- If I’m a just / law abiding person, I should have protection under the law.
- if I am reckless and dangerous and imperil others’ safety......there should be a price that serves two purposes.
1- separation from the people I’ve hurt
2- some measure of balance (punishments/ vengeance ) that shows the victims and society at large that the balance above is respected.
Otherwise- why ever follow rules of society or participate in modern society if there are no protections?
I’m not saying one strike and you’re out (depending on your crime of course) but in this case, he made decisions over time that disrespected the balance that society provides and people in his life.