I'm glad I read that with a beer in my hand!

Well. Good to know that drunken driving counts as a minor villainy only.

Category error, Well. Drinking does not equal drunkenness. Drunkenness does not equal drunk driving. And nowhere does Mencken equate villainy with drinking at all, only sobriety.

Mencken makes the logical error of implying correlation equals causation. Basically he's saying that people who drink have characters tempered enough that they are prevented from committing the worst villainies, while those who don't drink haven't the sensitivity of experience to create the most charming and beautiful things. It's also a load of bullshit. Mencken was a drunk, and this is a drunk's (poor) defense of drinking. If you've had friends killed by the actions of a drunk, or alcoholics in the family, you'll take a rather large exception to Mencken's glorification of those that hit the sauce. Oh yes, Mencken isn't saying that drunks are creators of the most beautiful and charming things. Fine. But certainly they should not be absolved of the greatest villainies. I'm not sure that he's correct that the sober have never created the beautiful and charming. It just seems to me that there are so many more drinkers than non- that the number of us up at the heights ought to be very few in any case. Much of Mencken's hyperbole about alcohol was politicized ranting against the government during the time of prohibition. His drinking behavior and overemphatic praise for alcohol really just reek of effort. What a loser.

No one's defending drunks or drunk drivers here.

Likewise, if you've ever suffered the brutality, self-righteousness, conniving and cruelty of teetotalers, you'd tend to side with Mencken. Like someone once pointed out, sin at least has to answer to conscience. Those who see themselves as righteous are not so curtailed. Viz. fundamentalists of all stripes everywhere.

It was Adam Smith who said that virtue is more dangerous than vice because virtue is unchecked by the conscience (paraphrasing).

A savage beastly and brutal sober person is sinning just as much, if not more than a drinker. C.S. Lewis would make the distinction, however, that the former is a sin of the soul and the latter a sin of the body, the former being worse than the latter in the long run. And the sober person ought to be checked by their conscience for turning their one area of non-sin into a battering ram fueled by pride. But most people don't listen to their consciences, as evidenced by the number of self-righteous assholes, and sauced up assholes.

Further, a sober person making conniving clever snide and contemptuous comments about their drinking friends is hardly of the same order as "the greatest of villainies." Nor do a few sober asses preclude teetotalers from the creation of things beautiful and charming.

Really, saying "but... sometimes they're mean!" is no defense of Mencken's slander of all people who make a choice not to drink. Mencken's statement is just as self-righteous as any pretend teetotal brutes you've imagined.

I'm sure it was a nice boost to your self-esteem though, to think one's self included in a group of charm and beauty creators, as opposed to those subhuman sober tyrants (of Biblical proportions, nonetheless).

Bah.

And such snide comments a boost to your ego, Tom! Do not think yourself exempt from sins of the soul. That you think yourself better than the rest of us is plain. Get this: you're not.

The lifespan of Mencken (1880-1956) encompassed that of Hitler (1889-1845), who was a villain of biblical proportions and a famous teetotaler to boot. And is, I'm sure, the villain in question.

And of course, that Hitler did not drink was the most suspicious aspect of his personality that anyone could come up with... Gee! Mencken's perceptive capacities just bowl you over don't they?

And you are correct, I'm not any better than the rest of the people here on a moral level. I screw up, and I have few doubts the rest of you screw up as well. But I find it ridiculous to locate the essential beauty or flaw of a person's soul and creative capacity in whether or not they choose to make alcohol a part of their life.

Cheers!