Ethanol = Oblivion (Homelessness and street begging)

Member Name: Plumptious

Product:	Homelessness and street begging
Date:	27/12/00 (36 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One way of not receiving junk mail, but a little drastic?

Disadvantages: Cold, dangerous, vulnerable, and lots of others.

What is the longest period of time you have gone without feeling hungry? I don't mean going on a diet, but simply not experiencing the desire to eat.

Imagine going for 24 hours without actually wanting to eat. Your body, separate from your mind, kicks in. Your tummy rumbles. But yet you don't feel hungry.

Many possibilities have been put forward for what hell is actually like. Most of us can recall a time when we were miserable and spent ages bawling our eyes out. Imagine things beyond your worst imaginings flashing so vividly in your mind that you don't have the time to cry. You are frozen, the images forcing themselves through your mind, again and again. Your tummy rumbles, but to eat would choke you.

Endlessly, the images go on. Time loses meaning. Nothing matters. How can they, when these things are hammering through your brain?

Desperately, you try everything to rid yourself of them. Anything, everything. Nothing works. Oblivion, so tempting, so elusive.

Suddenly, a moment of clarity. Budgies, born to fly, deprived of their freedom, rocking in their cages. Stereotypes, like those used in TV programmes, of people in white rooms, sitting, rocking endlessly. Hitting their heads, each impact a split second reprieve from hell. Now you know why they rock. You have arrived.


Depression is an experience that some are lucky to escape. It takes many forms. The popular portrayal of depression is that of a rather subdued individual, going slowly through life with a bit of difficulty. Well, that's all well and good, but these are the survivors.

Before you become a survivor, you go through the trauma. The bit at the beginning of this opinion is meant to show one way of why oblivion is so desirable. One way of achieving it is through suicide. A more constructive step is a course of anti-depressant drugs, which have helped many. And yet another option for achieving
oblivion is good old ethanol, condoned by Jesus himself and so easily accessible.

When I see a drunk vagrant on the street, the hedonist in me is dismayed by shabbily dressed body marring my view. If the drunk is shouting abuse, I am not appreciative of the resultant negative effect on the environment.

Of course I think something to that effect. After all, I don't think that a rampaging drunk tramp is a good thing, so there must be something about it that I object to, mustn't there?

But I definitely do not think that they should be ostracised. As I was trying to illustrate with my example of trauma leading to depression, alcohol is the only way some of them have found to survive. For some of these people, things have gone very badly wrong in their lives, and not all of it necessarily their fault. So badly wrong that they have lost everything. Any attempts to salvage what was lost would have been made before everything was lost. All attempts failed.

Alcoholics they may be, but they receive so much more condemnation than alcoholics who manage to retain their homes and families, some of whom are abusive. To my mind, these wife-beaters are the ones who are truly worthy of ostracism.

After all, a homeless alcoholic is merely abusing himself. He may also be a nuisance, but may be arrested for acting as such. If I may be cynical, there is therefore a "tidying away" facility for him. By not demanding a council flat, he makes no demands on society for housing, repairs, heating, lighting, food, rates, etc. He finds oblivion in the most cost effective and to his mind, non-obtrusive way he can manage.

The abusive alcoholic who remains at home, on the other hand, is less easily dealt with. The abused spouse, has to struggle with betrayal, hurt, shame before resolving to call the police. Even this is no real protection against repeated incidents. A protracted legal process involving restrain
ing orders, arrests for violation of restraining orders, etc. is the only way the law offers. In the face of this, the abused are sometimes forced to flee to homeless shelters and suchlike for their own safety.


So there you have it. My argument for homeless alcoholics who were driven to it. This is not to say that I think that they should simply be left as they are. If there is anyone out there who has experience of the rehabilitation process, please make yourself known. I know nothing of it and would be interested to learn more. One thing I wonder about is given what drove them to drink, is there a high suicide rate amongst those who sober up?

I once lived near a polytechnic which was rechristened a university. There was a sizable student body in the town. Near the town centre lived a homeless alcoholic. I saw him regularly, and noted with amusement that this enterprising individual had changed his chat up line to students from "You from the Poly?" to "You from the Uni?". Talk about keeping up with the times! He was a cheerful individual who brightened up a few of my afternoons with his jokes. He was also fairly generous, bribing the impoverished students with the promise of a can of lager if they would agree to use his money to purchase two cans from the off licence from which he was banned.

Before I get thrashed with comments, I would like to make clear that I do begrudge payments to all able individuals who shirk work, homeless or no. They are all beggars if they are capable of working. My reasoning is as follows: Payments claimed by shirkers for their housing, heating, lighting, and all other benefits, including the cash payments made to them, are composed of taxpayers money. Let us assume that it takes, on average, the contributions of four taxpayers to make up the payments to one shirker. The only difference between a beggar on the street and a shirker is that the shirker does not have to go
to these four people every week or month, asking for their tax payments. So the homeless are not popular, but homelessness in itself is not a crime.

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