Marching Backwards – A Short Note on Prohibition and The Cognitive Errors

I request my readers to consider the following ridiculous proposals:

Let us have a laughable and imprudent rule that women cannot step outside their houses as this will wipe out rape from the society and, surely, rape is undesirable. Alternatively, let men not step outside their houses as this will make wipe out rape from the society and, surely, rape is undesirable

Let us have a laughable and imprudent rule that all vehicles must be taken off the road as this will make accidents impossible, and, surely, accidents are undesirable.

Let us have a laughable and imprudent rule that all businesses must stop and let the honest governments of the day run all businesses as this will make wipe out black money from the society and, surely, black money is undesirable.

Let us have a laughable and imprudent rule that all liquor must be banned as this will wipe out drunkenness and domestic pain from the society and, surely, drunkenness and pain are undesirable.

The above ridiculous proposals are ridiculous only because this is what governments do.  Governments walk ass-backwards in its effort to walk in the rhythm of life of the people who have chosen them to govern.

There is a recent movement developing where liquor bans are being brought in, ostensibly, as it promotes quality of life in society (Frankly, this is nothing but invoking the stereotype of a sad family suffering a drunk husband / father).

Here is my question – is drinking a crime or being drunk stupid is?  Drinking is not a problem (By the way - I don't consume alcohol) – it’s the silly things men and women do after getting drunk that seem to be a problem (I mention men and women both here as I would like to break the bias about only men being drunk and becoming a nuisance to themselves and others).

Well, let us see where we morally stand with these new legal and administrative reforms to society. Drinking alcohol is a personal activity where the person drinking is mostly inward bound in terms of his affinity to the pleasures of the body. The person has willingly chosen to use his / her body in a way that potentially is harmful.  As this activity is an individual activity, society has a moral obligation to moderate it with certain rules and regulations ONLY SO that the activity does damage only to the individual body and not to the society.  We now have here age limits, registrations, higher taxes and licenses etc that govern the liquor industry.

The after effects of drinking too much are many and spill over to others and potentially go much beyond the person consuming alcohol.  They are obvious and too many and I will not list them here.  The moral issue here is to see if innocents, and society overall, are victims of drunken men and women.  If this is indeed the case, society can work on it through law and administration.

The distinction to be made here is that society cannot criminalize an act of freedom and must only focus its attention only where the subsequent actions post that act of freedom become a criminal act. This is basic law.  It is true that a crowd has no brains and therefore it is not surprising that such declarations are made to crowds especially around the time of elections.

Intoxication is undesirable and I list below some suggestions to solve these issues:

Alcohol can be sold to a married person only if he produces a valid APAN CARD… alcohol permanent account number.  This card must have a quarterly expiry where it can be renewed based on an affidavit from the spouse certifying that he/she/family has not suffered domestic violence or pain on account of the spouse’s consumption of alcohol.

Successive incidents of domestic violence on account of intoxication must result in the transfer of salary credit to the spouse.  Other retirement benefits too can face such a consequence.

Here is a final suggestion that truly exposes any government's hypocrisy together with the absolute and sincere lack of desire in really ensuring that alcohol intoxication does not affect the innocent - Forbid brand name extensions and subliminal advertising.  A liquor company must not be allowed to sell any product / service that even remotely carries the brand name or graphic design of its alcohol content brand.

The above suggestions are indicative and can be modified to suit the constitution and the laws of jurisprudence.  In any case, our prime responsibility is to think out solutions.

It may be helpful to remember that the Mumbai Underworld is a product of the Alcohol Ban in Maharashtra.  I pray - let us not develop a medieval mindset and not march backwards to our glorious brainless pasts.

© Nitesh Kotecha