Charlie Sheen, as advertised
Charlie Sheen is in the news for being a degenerate playboy. This, to me, illustrates the bipolar nature of Western morality or, more accurately, mores. In the case of celebrities, this is found through two magazines. Vogue and People. One shows celebs as they’d like to be portrayed and the other as they actually are. It’s neurotic.
When Charlie Sheen says that doing drugs, partying, and sleeping with porn stars is winning, in a sense he’s right. In one particular pole of American norms, that is winning. I grew up in Middle America and the rites of adult passage were drinking, doing drugs and trying to get laid. It was only later that I realized that this wasn’t really for me, but even in Sri Lanka the pull of those norms is strong.
Take any wedding. The priest talks about love and fidelity and then they serve copious amounts of booze and people get down to 50 Cent on the dancefloor. I’ve heard some seriously amoral lyrics at the most square weddings, not to mention the fact that most kiddie parties at McDonald’s seem to feature Akon.
It’s as if we (the westernized included) expect this quaint morality in the public sphere yet want to get high and horny in private. What makes Charlie Sheen taboo is the fact that he’s talking about it. It’s perfectly OK to destroy yourself as long as it doesn’t intrude on the public sphere. Sex, drugs and rock and roll is glorified in music, film, advertising and personal conversation, but not to be done in public, especially in connection to politicians or public figures.
Part of this is because culture updates every year whereas religion seems to update every 2000. You had Judaism, then a Steve Jobsesque figure named Jesus unveiled Judaism 2.0, the New Testament. Then Mohammed revealed Judaism 3.0, Islam. Since then, nothing much. Maybe the first Sai Baba. In the Indian tradition, you have Hinduism then Buddhism. The multiplicity of Hinduism and the simplicity of Buddhism are, I think, actually quite suited to the modern age. I find Hinduism very suitable for understanding Indian bureaucracy and human frailty and Buddhism very suitable for living.
The mores (norms or standards) of all of these religions, however, are somewhat out of date. Attitudes towards homosexuality or sexuality in general, for example, or even prescriptions on food or dress. These moral foundations have all evolved into behavioral guides which are actually not well adapted anymore.
Drugs are not actually bad. Done too much, yes, but they are not inherently bad. The sages consuming soma and composing the Vedas could have told you that. Sex is not bad either, and you don’t need to be married. Most people have historically gotten high and laid and continue to do so.
The problem is that many moral cultures simply say that these things are bad and we’re not talking to you anymore. Thus, people who get into that ‘counter’ culture have no guidance at all, and they’re the people that need it the most.
Take American drinking laws. As a young man I learned about drinking by taking 10 shots of Absolut Vodka and ending up passed out in a bathtub while my friend was trying to finger his girlfriend. I was 16, and that was fucking retarded. If you want to try marijuana, you’d go through someone who also sold nitrous oxide and cocaine or whatever. Also dumb. Imagine if you could have wine with your parents or buy marijuana from a legitimate store. There would obviously be some better norms associated with the behavior. Even obviously toxic drugs like heroin seem to be dealt with better by decriminalization (like in Portugal).
Trying to ban natural behaviors like sex or drug taking tend to force it underground. Shutting gay people out of institutions like marriage means that society left them no structure but promiscuity. Making drugs illegal meant that otherwise normal people needed to associate with criminals. Denying the truth and nuance of human behavior basically makes things worse.
Charlie Sheen really seems like he’s addicted to drugs and needs help. He is, however, right in that his lifestyle is fun and many people sitting at home with their ugly wives and kids (his quote) are probably jealous. But people are calling him crazy because that’s not OK to say. It’s OK to use that desire to sell people body spray or concert tickets, but you can’t actually talk about it openly. While Charlie Sheen is crazy in that he seems to have little instinct for self preservation, what he’s saying isn’t actually insane. That hedonism is part of America’s collective unconscious and it is actually something legitimate to say.
Not drugs but I love sex and booze, usually other way around.
Sympathies. The crux of your rant is ‘trying to get laid’… no, some of us did get laid, all the time, especially attending college in midwestern america.
Making drugs, sex and booze either immoral or illegal and thus ensuring that many kids can’t actually have a rational conversation about it with many adults can sometime have such horrible repercussions on the teenagers of today. I’ve played agony aunt to quite a few teens both local and foreign who run with the international school “party” crowd where fake ID’s, booze, drugs and sex appear to be a staple of the evenings entertainment. But I’m always horrified and enraged by how woefully ignorant these kids are. Telling kids “don’t do drugs its BAD for you” “dont have sex before your married” is a no brainer. Teenage logic goes something like- if stodgy authoritarian figures say its bad we should try it at least once to make sure they aren’t lying. I’ve had kids of 17+ tell me “what shall we do? my best friend lost her virginity because she was passed out drunk/high and she woke up in bed with this guy and now she hasnt got her period and cant remember if he used a condom, and we’re too scared to tell her parents……” I’m like WTF? In this day and age, HOW can you be this stupid? instead of ignoring the issue and hoping it will go away what parents should be telling kids is something along the lines of
– if you must drink know your limit, figure out how many glasses of your poison of choice you can consume before you start making a complete arse of yourself, pace your drinking, hydrate in between so that you can drink for longer with getting to the idiot making stage.
– Be careful if you do drugs, learn the repercussions of taking low grade stuff. Dont drink lots of water with E etc..
-Pulling out beforehand doesnt always work. use a condom and if you have any little accidents, the morning after pill is cheap and available over the counter at every supermarket and all night pharmacies. Oh and like everything else sex gets better with practice if youre a girl the first time will probably be horrible because its a good bet your teenage counterpart also doesnt have too much of a clue to what he’s doing and so it will probably hurt like hell never mind what any of the romance novels may say.
– Yes some STD’s CAN be contracted without having intercourse- swapping spit can be enough
– your parents have bought you an expensive laptop and pay for high speed lease lines to help you do your “homework” – if you dont want to talk about it with adults – use your laptop to google all this stuff not just for FB, myspace or Torrents- PLEASE do not depend on the half-assed wisdom of your peers they probably know less about it than you do
what ever you do, you need to be responsible for yourself dont expect your friends to do it for you. That’s the part of being an adult that really sucks the freedom to make your own choice goes hand in hand with that other less popular freedom of bearing all the consequences as well.
American uni drinking culture is ‘retarded’. These guys are way too intense about their drinking never try to enjoy the alcohol. I remember going to parties freshman year and everyone was ‘fucked up’ 45 mins into the party. Things get better after that though, but junior sophomore years people learn how to handle their alcohol
Indi, you sound so pious! Yeah Western weddings aren’t like Sri Lankan weddings, but to be honest, I prefer Western weddings: At Sri Lankan weddings a load of extended family turns up that you haven’t seen since you were 2 years old and frankly you will never see again. Western weddings on the other hand are smaler and tend to have more friends of the bride and groom, so basically just your nearest and dearest plus your immediate family. And what’s wrong with drinking a few glasses of champagne while getting down to some Fifty Cent?! Whatever rocks your boat Indi. And about drinking in the West: When you’re a teenager in the West, I think you probably do experiment a lot more than in Sri Lanka, but as an adult it is different. Sure, there is definitely more social drinking like having a glass of wine with dinner, but not to get drunk: just to enjoy a fine wine with nice food.. There are crazies like Charlie Sheen everywhere around the world, but to say that the West has an “unconscious hedonist side” is pushing the envelope a bit too far.
“Sure, there is definitely more social drinking like having a glass of wine with dinner, but not to get drunk: just to enjoy a fine wine with nice food.. ”
LOL, what a bunch of horse shit.