Re:To revive Portland, officials seek to ban public drug use
by avgcorrection on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @04:35PM
(#38618936)
Drug addicts are victims of a very civilizational pathology, so more like the opposite of savages. I was more getting at whatever good they might do (?) in their own very informal societies—societies that most people either shy away from or are oblivious to, so it’s very difficult for most people to know whatever pro-social activities they do.
Re:To revive Portland, officials seek to ban public drug use
by Dweller1622 on Tuesday December 12, 2023 @06:40PM
(#38620422)
> Loosely, addiction can be useful-- the thrill seekers[...]
This seems like a strange conception of addiction, unless we aren't seriously comparing mountain climbing with heroin. If we are then I wonder what utility the classification of addiction is actually supposed to provide to us.
Re:To revive Portland, officials seek to ban public drug use
by anon373839 on Wednesday December 13, 2023 @08:04AM
(#38626730)
If an argument is conceivable, there is always at least one HNer who will feel compelled to make it.
Noble savages?
Loosely, addiction can be useful-- the thrill seekers among us are our pioneers. Everest wasn't Hillary's first climb, it was his tallest.
Think about the implications of that though. Pioneers die...a lot. As a group the addict class are probably meant to be sacrificial.
Pathological addiction subverts that. It's a problem in that they risk their lives for no real benefit to anyone.