Cool to be Comatose

A recent report by ABC News details the trend of young women posting pictures on social networking sites such as Facebook that show them drunk or drugged and often in compromising positions.

My first thought upon reading this story was, “look at what those crazy kids are doing today!” Then I thought back to my drinking days (what I can remember), before the days of blackouts, tremors, and anxiety attacks when I considered drinking “cool”. Back to the time when the highlight of the weekend was playing a game of presidents and assholes with Ouzo or the time when we hog-tied in duck tape one of our passed out compatriots and hung him upside down from a stairwell… and I know I have no room to talk.

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So I am not going to write a scathing commentary on the skewed value systems of our youth. Instead, I’ll just blame it on our society’s fascination with drugs and alcohol that does indeed make it cool to be comatose. Binge drinking and addled antics are something of a rite of passage in our culture and it’s not like a few lewd pictures of drunken tarts is going to change the situation. Especially when you consider that the 100,000 dead every year in the US from alcohol poisoning and drug overdose can prompt little more than a single PSA during a beer soaked Super Bowl.

No, this senseless cycle is most likely just to continue on and on. Some people will grow out it, some will die before they are able to grow out of it, and every generation will continue to have a new crop of alcoholics and addicts just because it is cool to be comatose.

The year is 2008; we have harnessed the power of the atom, been to the moon, and have doubled life expectancy yet we still haven’t figured out that drinking till you puke is a bad idea.