This letter is in response to Alcohol can cause many nasty side effects (SN 4/2).
In his column, Craig Gunn has described a utopian society, which by its nature and the laws of thermodynamics (order-producing systems produce disorder), is inherently flawed.
Alcohol, cigarettes and a few other substances are intricate elements within our society. Without them, we would degrade into a country of hyperactive warlords. Alcohol, for good or ill, contains the masses.
Eliminating alcohol in favor of an intelligent academic-based society would be more detrimental than anyone could possibly imagine.
The human mind needs to be subdued or preoccupied to keep it out of trouble. The human mind and ambition are wonderfully powerful entities. Once people stop drinking and start thinking, they will realize how boring and lacking many of their lives really are, and they will want to change this at once. The interpretation of boring and flawed will vary greatly.
For example, lets look at one famous person who got drunk only once, never smoked and chose to be a vegetarian. This man didnt know what he wanted out of life, and drifted for a long time. He wasnt very good in school, but loved history and read a great deal. This gave him time to think. Eventually, he met other individuals with similar ideals and began to realize a dream. After starting World War II, Adolf Hitler proceeded with his ideas of race cleansing and we all know the story from there.
Elements such as alcohol, tobacco, television, etc., keep our society in order. Eliminating them would send our world into a wild uncontrollable torrent of revolt, disorder and mayhem.
Mark Melnykowycz
engineering mechanics senior