…Because part of living a full life is getting drunk in bars, and when you’re drunk, the fresh night air and the silence of the streets is the best fucking thing. Walking home drunk is not an unfortunate expediency, carelessness or irresponsible behavior. It’s a pleasurable experience. It’s a liberating experience. And women should be able to do these things for their own sake, not just when we’re stuck without a ride, or “made a mistake,” or didn’t realize how late it had gotten, but because while we’re here, we’d like to live a little. And fuck the consequences. – Apostate.
I’ve always had a contentious relationship with Apostate’s blog, but it’s stuff like this that ensures that I can’t stay away. I’d like to put this on a t-shirt – a silk one that ties with little strings at the back, so you can feel the air on your skin.
Natalia A. 
No comments? That is freaking awesome! And totally encaptulates something that is almost impossible to explain to some people. 😐
🙂
Her Sarah Palin entry today resonated with me too. I don’t like Palin, but I know an over the line low blow when I read one. I usually like Dave Letterman, but he fucked up.
Beautiful quote, I agree.
Apostate=EPIC WIN 😀
“Walking home drunk is not an unfortunate expediency, carelessness or irresponsible behavior. It’s a pleasurable experience. It’s a liberating experience.”
Losing control of your senses is a liberating experience, how, exactly? I must be operating on a totally different definition of “liberating”.
I’m against date rape, but honestly, encouraging irresponsibility does not seem to have anything whatsoever to do with freedom.
As a mystic, I’m sure you’re aware of the long tradition of sensory manipulation that went on, and goes on, across cultures.
And Apostate isn’t “encouraging irresponsibility,” she is correctly pointing out that walking home drunk is fun, and it’s unfortunate that we live in a world where we are often made to pay for this fun – pay twice, in fact, because first the rapist makes you pay, and then society makes you pay all over again, by legitimizing the rape.
I also find the phrase “I’m against date rape, but…” to be a bit odd, to be honest.
Hang on a minute: what has walking home drunk got to do with date rape? I don’t remember any mention of other people being present, although it is more fun if they are. How fondly I remember wafting homeward on beery zephyrs with two friends, singing ‘Bread of Heaven’ at the top of our lungs. The liberation in our case was that none of us can really sing, and when we’re sober we know that. Apostate is right: women deserve the same safety that I can expect doing something silly like that. To be irresponsible is to free oneself from the dominion of prudence.
Yes, no ‘but’ belongs in that sentence. What’s next? “I’m against killing kittens with hammers, but they shouldn’t crunch so satisfyingly”? Rape is the fault of the rapist. End of story.
“As a mystic, I’m sure you’re aware of the long tradition of sensory manipulation that went on, and goes on, across cultures.”
This is a complex topic because all mystical paths do not encourage sensory pursuits, only some do.
The tradition of sensory manipulation that you are talking about is something that was/is done under strictly circumscribed limitations and under the guidance of a well-trained spiritual teacher. It was not something anybody did publicly or in a way that put them at risk, either physically or psychologically. The enjoyment of the senses was only a means to a greater end — dissolution in a Divine Reality — not an end in itself. Moreover, assuming you are talking about paths such as Hindu left-hand Tantra, those particular paths have now gotten distorted well beyond recognition, particularly in the Western world of commercialized pop-spirituality.
“walking home drunk is fun, and it’s unfortunate that we live in a world where we are often made to pay for this fun”
This is exactly my question … what’s fun about getting drunk? What’s fun about losing control? I feel like I’m missing something. For me, “fun” generally involves a high level of self-mastery and self-control, which allows me to channel my energies into something constructive and makes me feel fulfilled and empowered. “Fun” would be learning a martial art and having such a high level of alertness and self-awareness that I’m able to kick any potential rapist to the curb in self-defense. Not getting drunk.
“I also find the phrase “I’m against date rape, but…” to be a bit odd, to be honest.”
Okay, bad choice of words. What I really meant to say was, if someone is drunk, they are not to be blamed for being raped or sexually assaulted. I don’t mince words about that. However, to then jump from there to say, by all means, go on out, get drunk, weaken your will-power, weaken your bodily self-control, and make yourself vulnerable, just because it’s “fun”, is absurd.
This kind of stuff is just reactionary and it doesn’t help any woman make choices that will make her stronger and more resilient in the face of patriarchal societies.
Me, I’ma gonna sit here and scratch my head about the whole “losing control” thing, which has … not so much to do with drunkenness except in extremity.
(And of course, nobody ever makes statements of unreasonable extremes on the internet, so I’m left with the insoluble question of why the rhetorical foreshortening.)
stumblingmystic… really? You don’t personally enjoy drunkeness, thus other people’s enjoyment is irrelevant?
If you avoid poisoning yourself for fun, good on you! Alcohol is terrible for you, and for many people is easy to become dependant on or simply makes you a person you don’t like. Or the hangovers start to outweight the drunkeness.
This does not in any way negate anyone else’s pleasure in feeling completely aware of the world and joyful, which is what alcohol can do.
As for this:
I think you’re missing the point. She’s not telling people to go get drunk. She’s speaking on behalf of people who already understand this feeling.
People like to get drunk and be stupid. A drunk young man dancing topless in the street is not seen to be “asking for it” but a woman wearing a short skirt doing the same is.
It fucking sucks that so many people are unwilling to see it’s a life experience that is denied exclusively to women.
That was not as succinct or eloquent as I’d like but it’ll do I guess. 😛
Mystic,
I brought up the tradition of inebriation to point out that it’s part of culture – part of various cultures, in fact. People seeking enlightenment get there in different ways, and while I can’t comment on inebriation and mysticism, I can tell you that inebriation in itself has various meanings, and I think you might agree.
I also don’t see the point of arguing over what one finds liberating.
I have a friend who says he finds it liberating when he is up in the sky, piloting one of those little planes – like a Cessna or whatnot.
Personally, I’m terrified of little planes. But so what? Would I lecture him on it? Tell him to drop that nonsense because I happen to think that it’s dangerous and scary?
You know, the minute that the word “rape” enters the conversation, people feel entitled to engage in all sorts of moralizing. I think that sucks.