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Post by rev betty on Dec 15, 2005 10:12:53 GMT -5
hello.
i'm violethal on livejournal. and i've just got a few questions to ask. i'm not asking them to be an asshole, i'm just looking to understand straightedge a little bit better.
do you use medicines? what is the difference between a medicine and a drug?
do you use foods/drinks like coffee? or tea? or what about foods that are said to have aphrodesiac qualities? are those drugs?
what sort of herbs would violate straightedge?
i'm not straightedge, obviously. i use cannabis and occasionally i have caffeine, but i don't drink and generally stay away from any sort of pills. i'm just curious where the lines lie.
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Post by xvx on Dec 15, 2005 17:34:36 GMT -5
Well, I don't think there's any strict definition of straightedge... it's a personal thing. People who talk about "purity" and all that shit are pretty reactionary in my opinion.
Medicine: I don't use over-the-counter meds and haven't had to use prescription meds in a long time. I find the whole pharmaceutical/medical industry to be pretty disgusting and try my best to deal with health in other ways. The difference between taking medication to get healthy and using drugs to get high seems pretty clear to me.
I personally do not drink caffeine or carbonated beverages and try to stay away from foods with lots of processed sugar. I don't know anything about herbs, but posing the question as "what violates sxe" seems to be going about it all wrong.
Straightedge isn't a set of laws or 'lines'. It's a lifestyle or tool that can be at best a way to help relate to others in healthier, more subversive ways (this means being sober for me) or at worst another commodified and alienated role.
In the end I find alcohol, drugs, and the culture surrounding them to be undesireable. Drugs and alcohol are also a classic form of control (crack and alcohol in the ghetto, heroin in prisons, etc). Drug dealers and liquor stores are capitalist parasites, and I wish them the worst. In a culture so filled with self-destruction and such, I think straightedge is an interesting way of opposing that.
Hope that makes sense.
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