More: Alcoholism (Continued)
C: It doesn't make any difference whether we call it an illusion, a delusion, or an obsession. All three of them mean the same thing, to
believe something that isn't true. Down at the bottom of page thirty-seven, a second example. This one I love. This is my main man here.
(p. 37, par. 5) 'Our behavior is as absurd and incomprehensible with respect to the first drink as that of an individual with a passion, say, for Jay-walking.' Now I don't understand this guy at all. It's beyond my ability to understand how he can get a thrill out of
skipping in front of these fast moving vehicles. (laughter) But he gets out there and he get in front of them. He sees how close they can come to hitting him. Somewhere, somehow, he gets some exciting feeling out of that.
Now: (p. 37, par. 5) 'He enjoys himself for a few years in spite of friendly warnings.' You know, people see him doing that and they say, hey, Jack, I think you ought to stop doing that. (laughter) Sooner or later you're going to get hurt. He doesn't pay any attention. He goes right ahead, and he gets this thrill and enjoyment out of it.
(p. 37, par. 5 p. 38, par 1) 'Up to this point you would label him as a foolish (top of p. 38) chap having queer ideas of fun. Luck then deserts him and he is slightly injured several times in succession.'
I imagine what's happened, he's getting older. He can't move as fast. (laughter) They begin to hit him once in a while. (laughter) Nothing real serious, Just kind of bouncing off of them. (p. 38, par. 1) 'You would expect him, if he were normal, to cut it out.'
J: He ain't normal.
C: (p. 38, par. 1) 'Presently he is hit again and this time has a fractured skull. Within
a week after leaving the hospital a fast-moving trolley car breaks his arm. He tells you he has decided to stop jay-walking for good' He sings their national anthem. He said, I ain't never going to Jay-walk again as long as I live. (p. 38, par. 1-2) '... but in a few weeks he breaks both legs.'
'On through the years this conduct continues, accompanied by his continual promises to be careful or to keep off the streets altogether. Finally, he can no longer work, his wife gets a divorce and he is held up to ridicule. He tries every known means to get the jay-walking idea out of hi. head.' Not his body, his head.
(p. 38, par. 2) 'He shuts himself up in an asylum, hoping to mend his ways. But the day he comes out he races in front of a fire engine, which breaks his back. Such a men would be crazy, wouldn't he?'
'You may think our illustration is too ridiculous. But is it? We, who have been through the wringer, have to admit if we substituted alcoholism for jay-walking, the illustration would fit us exactly. However intelligent we may have been in other respects, where alcohol has been involved, we have been strangely insane. It's strong language--but isn't it true?'
'Some of you are thinking: "Yea, what you tell us is true, but it doesn't fully apply. We admit we have some of these symptoms, but we have not gone to the extremes you fellows did, nor are we likely to, for we understand ourselves so well after what you have told us that such things cannot happen again. We have not lost everything in life
through drinking and we (top of p. 39) certainly do not intend to.
'That may be true of certain nonalcoholic people who, though drinking foolishly and heavily at the present time, are able to stop or moderate, because their brains and bodies have not been damaged as ours were.' We talked about that fellow, the heavy drinker. (bottom of p. 20, par. 7 to p. 21, par. 1)
