If You Only Knew Me, You Would Love Me

Today I was in the liquor store buying some beer.  I got behind a woman who was (of all things in a liquor store) buying a Coke.  She pointed out the small, portable shots that they sell at the register to the cashier and she began lecturing her for selling those.  She was upset that they were marketed toward the "youth" and when the cashier clearly didn't share her feelings, she began to plead that she knew people who were in drunk driving accidents (and that they had been the drunkard) who were never the same afterwards.  I felt sorry for the cashier and told her while I was buying my beer that people have been doing stupid things with alcohol for thousands of years and it wasn't up to her to make sure they were responsible.

Of course, afterwards, I got to thinking about what the self-righteous woman said.  She was really upset about the packaging of the alcohol, and not the fact of the alcohol itself (she did go in a liquor store of her own accord, to buy Coke when there's a grocery store next door).  I realized that her arguments were all the same ones that people use to accuse the fast food industry of making us fat--"I couldn't help myself!  They had such cool advertising!"

There is one type of person that makes their decisions based on who has the coolest packaging.  We call those people children.  My kids always want the cereal box with the most cartoon characters.  Of course, if those same boxes contained things like beer or cigarettes, I understand being a little concerned.  However, this woman was worried about ADULTS making bad decisions based on cool packaging.  If that really is your problem, you have a lot more to worry about than getting drunk.  You are an extremely immature person and a helpless pawn.

Her second plea, based on that you would be sensitive if you knew somebody, also seems ridiculous.  How many people are more sensitive to those they know well, especially those in their own family, than they are to strangers?  I've seen teenagers say horrible things to their parents that they would never say to someone they didn't know well.  I wished now (of course, after the fact) that I had addressed her and said something like, "Well you must not know those people very well, or else you would be a better judge of their character."  I'm supposed to pity someone who was the hopeless victim of cool advertising, bought a bunch of liquor shots, drunk them while driving, and then injured themself?  I don't think so.