A couple of days ago, a comment was posted on Twitter. “If you are stocking up on booze before ECQ begins, you have a problem. Alcohol Drinking problem.”
The comments that followed were positive towards this person who is obviously concerned about the health and safety of his fellow men and women. He may have studied the research on people that have been locked down in the past year. We know that unhealthy habits have increased for many of us.
It is also possible that the comment is not only about being locked down but also specifically about alcohol consumption. Perhaps he or a person close to him has battled against alcoholism or simply drinking in excess.
Along with the “thumbs-up” type of comments, came others that expanded not only on the evils of alcohol, but also “Go Vegan,” “Don’t eat red meat,” and “Try intermittent fasting.” His post elicited “Public Service Announcements” by many well-meaning individuals.
In my younger days, I drank for both quantity and, when I could afford it, quality. A bottle of Mateus or a Portuguese rosé wine was a big payday date treat with dinner. More often, it was cheap Coors beer on poker nights and Budweiser for special occasions, sometimes in large quantities.
Wealth and age moved me on to single-malt whiskey and Châteauneuf-du-Pape.
Tomorrow, I am expecting a delivery of two, not one, cases of beer. And I bought two cases in anticipation of the lockdown. I am sure my twitter “friend” and his friends might be horrified. I purchased two cases because I do business with an online shop that has “Buy One; Take One” on beer. Further, I drink beer virtually every single day. (More gasping from the Twitter audience).
Yes, every single day…one glass of beer with my dinner.
“Public Service Announcements” like “Don’t Text and Drive” or “Never Run with Scissors” are specific suggestions that apply and are helpful to everyone. The fact that you might need—not simply want—to text while operating a motor vehicle because it is potentially a life-or-death situation is the exception that proves the rule.
In Canada, research indicates that scissors are responsible for 10 percent of all eye injuries. Statistics from a hospital in Taiwan implicated scissors in nearly 14 percent of eye injuries.
But the point is that—and we see it every day relating to Covid prevention and cure—people are adamant to tell the world that everyone should follow their advice on almost everything.
Individual “Truth” is given out like condo-for-sale flyers at the mall whether anyone wants it, needs it, and regardless if it is useful at all. If not for Twitter, would the gentleman with words of wisdom about buying booze during the lockdown be going door-to-door to his neighbors making sure they were following his advice?
We live in a world where most thinking people would agree that what two consenting adults do in the bedroom behind closed doors is no one else’s business. Yet that same world is one in which too many people think they have the obligation, let alone the right, to tell people how to live their lives in many other respects.
A woman on an airplane pulls out a Kit Kat bar and eats it. Having missed lunch, she takes out another. The gentleman next to her points to her candy and says she shouldn’t do that, as it is unhealthy.
The woman turns to the man and says, “My grandfather lived to 92 years old.” The man asks, “Because he ate chocolate?” “No,” the woman replies. “Because he minded his own business.”
E-mail me at mangun@gmail.com. Follow me on Twitter @mangunonmarkets. PSE stock-market information and technical analysis provided by AAA Southeast Equities Inc.