People with an uncontrollable compulsion to drink or get high are not doing it to "be happy" or to "find some wisdom" because they haven't "discovered" that drugs are bad for them. Nor are they experiencing "real joy," or even laboring under the illusion that it is "cute or hip-looking or fabulous." A lot of what's written by well-meaning folks above reads as if addiction is a CHOICE. You think the guy sitting in the rain outside my window right now with a bottle in a paper bag doesn't know it's "expensive and wasteful?" Hate to belabor the obvious here, but addiction isn't "fun." Addiction means you know it's bad for you, but you can't stop. Addiction means you know it's bad for you, but it still is better than something even more tormenting underneath, so you do it anyway, and then you wake up and feel so horrible, that you want to get rid of that feeling too. So you do it yet again.
Imagine that there you are in that cycle (and it is a cycle). You want to get out, but you are so ashamed there's another part of you that just wants to hide. So you reach for the substance just one more time, to dull out that shame. And then, along comes some well meaning friend, and says, "God. Why don't you just stop? Fine, kill yourself if you want to. I don't really care. You're just an idiot. Why don't you act your age?" Then you feel even worse. And maybe even less likely to admit the problem and go for help. And it goes on and on.
I don't feel right talking about whether or not George or anyone else is or isn't an addict, or what happened that night. I wasn't there. But, speaking from my own personal experience, and from what I've made a point of studying, no one wakes up in the morning and says, "I think I will do self-destructive things today because it's fun." People do what they need to do for a variety of reasons that no one but them can understand. But, there are always reasons. For me, my addictive behavior is about not being able to stand feeling something, like feeling too transparent, so it's better to make a lot of noise (yeah, like I am here
) and look outward. I wake up almost every day and think, "Today I am not going to have any stupid crushes, and I'm not going to be addicted to the internet, and I'm not going out dancing like a 20 year old in a tube top." Then, alas, it's 3 a.m. and there I am again at my desk, with distant love stars in my eyes, my fingers on the keyboard, and a stamp on my hand from that night's party. --And of course that's NOTHING compared to drugs and alcohol which carry their own very real physically addictive properties as well.So, same thing, about the purported "revolving door" policy. God knows if I was being judged on whether or not my activities are "age approprite" I'd be sunk. (And, come on, wouldn't a lot of us here on the motherboards?
) Maybe to someone whose many accolades stem from pop culture, it feels crucial to hang with younger kids on the scene. Maybe to someone who is mobbed every time he sets foot in a club, it's better to bring the friends and scenesters to his house. Who knows. We all do what we need to do to get by until those things don't work for us anymore. And, for a lot of people, we do them for a lot longer than that, too, even in the face of dire consequences, while we are trying to stop. So, I know the hearts here are definitely in the right place. (I myself am often tempted to preach about the dangers of drugs, just because I worry about my friends and the kids on the scene, as I know you guys do, too.) But I say there's no point in bashing addicts of any kind. It just doesn't help.
As for George, I can't imagine what it would feel like to be doing whatever I need to do to get by, and be in my own process, and then have it telecast all over the world when the consequences came up to bite me on the ass. The consequences themselves (legal, social, whatever) are painful enough. I can't imagine what it would feel like to have it all aired on public broadcast.
So, no finger wagging from me. I'm hardly in a position to do that myself. Besides, I think he's great.