Let me begin by quoting from two Guardian articles¹:

It's Saturday night and you can almost hear the drum beats of a primal British ritual pounding. It's time for the smallest market town and the largest urban centre to bury their differences in a sea of beer and Bacardi Breezers. By the end of the night, young women with glazed eyes will link arms and sing anything from Frank Sinatra to The Wizard of Oz; young men will support themselves against the nearest immovable object and then urinate on it. It's Saturday night: time to "get hammered", "blasted" and "go mad for it". It's time, in short, for alcohol to take over.

"British social culture is built around drink," says Eric Appleby of Alcohol Concern. "If you're going to meet people after work you meet them in a pub. If you're going out for a chat you'll go to a pub and in the pub there is a macho thing about how many drinks you've had. Drinking alcohol then becomes the primary social activity."

Back in Stevenage a young woman, in a short skirt despite the bitter cold, stands outside the Pulse nightclub with her head in a bin. While one friend puts a coat over her back so that no one can see her knickers, the other holds her hair out of her face as she retches. A sight so common that no one is watching.

If you live in the UK, all of the above may well be uncomfortably familiar - this will be especially true if you are a teenager.

Indeed, it is all too familiar to me. However, a strange thing happened to me at secondary school. Lots of other people seemed to have this blind need to 'fit in', conform to the group - no matter what the cost, or how stupid something seemed. However, one day, I didn't feel this urge at all. In fact, I thought it was a very negative mindset to have.

I don't smoke…

Maybe it's because I'm a Christian. Coming to terms with my spiritual outlook on life also meant thinking about my actions, and why I did what I did. And I realised: it doesn't matter what other people do, or say, or think. There was absolutely no need for me to go along with them, they didn't have anything I wanted. I didn't need to be popular (though I had friends). And the friends I did have didn't make demands of me so I could be seen with them. So when I saw other people smoking - especially the kids younger than us, I just thought "you fools".

There was a girl - a really irritating loud mouth who loved to wind everyone up - who used to sit at the back of the school bus. She must've been two years below me. And she would come on the bus, and boast "aaaw, I'm DYIN' for a faaag". Yes. Dying quite literally. I can't comprehend the minds of the tobacco companies. They target their products which KILL people at audiences they know will become addicted to them. This is no secret. Everyone (in the West at least) knows the health risks, and that they are addictive. Yet they still think that by somehow sticking a piece of rolled up paper filled with tar will somehow make them more attractive or popular! This is the only reason that people take up smoking. Sure, once you're addicted, you can claim that it calms your nerves - but isn't that just a fix because you spend your time "gaspin' for a faaag" and that need is then relieved? Just like when you want a cup of tea!

Plus, the smell makes me retch. I have asthma, which doesn't help - the smell makes my eyes water and the smoke makes me wheeze. It damages your tastebuds, wastes your money, makes you smell bad and may give you cancer. I see no reason to respect someone for that.²

I don't drink…

The introductory excerpts that began this obscure 'testimony' should give you an idea of what I'm rejecting. I am not out-and-out against alcohol, but I don't drink it with my friends. I might have some wine with a meal at a restaurant, champagne at New Year's Eve, or whatever - but only ever one glass or so. And to be honest, I don't often even bother with that (especially if I'm paying).

My rejection of alcoholism also dates back to secondary school. Everyone knows that to be a really rebellious teenager, and to show how mature and cool you are, you've got to get really, really drunk. And then boast about it.

At college, it's very common to hear people either boasting about how incredibly plastered they got at the weekend, or how incredibly hammered they intend to get tonight. "I didn't know WHO I had knocked out - but the bouncer was quick to eject me from the club". "…and they found me, lying in the gutter, covered in my best mate's vomit…". They boast about how little they can remember, they boast about how much money they spent on booze, and how they're going broke because of it. It seems to me that these people's definition of a "really good night out" equates not being able to remember it. I don't want to be like these people.

Some people are genuinely shocked when I tell them I don't drink, and don't shower them with praise for having no readily apparent self control. This is because they live in a world where they do what they think other people expect of them, even if, when you take a step back, this seems stupid. This, to me, is what appeals to me about straight edge. I was already 'straight edge' before I knew the tag - but I was delighted to find that I was not alone in my thinking - far from it.

Something which amuses me, in a twisted way, is that (like the Guardian except pointed out), is that people do not think you can have fun socially without alcohol. How pathetic! The first thing they ask about a party is "who's bringing the booze?". To many people, the prospect of attending a party where there will be no alcohol seems preposterous. "But what's the point in that?" is often their reply when I ask them about holding a non-alcoholic party. Surely, I reason, the point is to meet new people and socialise. Now, I realise that some people aren't that confident when talking to people (especially members of the opposite sex) but it can't be good for them when, instead of developing their social skills, they just reinforce a dependency on drink. And wouldn't it be nice to hold legible, interesting and humorous conversations with people and find out what they're really like? Sounds like crazytalk, dunnit mate?

So that's why I don't ever drink socially. I don't even bother having one alcoholic drink - what's the point? It's usually more expensive and I'd only reap the "benefits" after a few more - and the more I'd have the less control I'd have over what I was drinking, saying and doing.

Finally, here's what really put me off drinking. Try going to a p**s-up, and don't drink. Sit there, and observe the other people at it, drinking themselves stupid - poisoning themselves until they pass out and/or throw up. Ask yourself: are these people really having fun? Or are they just acting like complete and total idiots? Being with a lot of drunk people when you're sober is rarely much fun. Why is this? Maybe it's because the drink is deluding its consumers from reality, it's their crutch. And if I don't like something, I want to be in the state of mind which means I can cope with it - and change it for the better.

I don't f**k…

"Why don't they whore around and catch some STDs

By plying jailbait girls with alcohol down at Martine's?" - Excerpt from 'Get Pregnant' by The Pregnants

Not sleeping around is quite simple, really. The fact that the UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe doesn't surprise me in the least. It's like when someone beats someone up while under the influence of alcohol. "It wasn't my fault, I was drunk!" Or they badmouth someone "I was drunk!" or they sleep with someone they don't know, or like: "I was drunk!". Well, news to you matey, you didn't have to be. Being drunk is not an excuse, it's not a reason to get away with what's usually socially unacceptable behaviour - yet in today's youth culture (and to an extent greater modern society) it's viewed as the 'norm', like the Guardian Article pointed out.

The same goes with sleeping around. "I didn't mean to get her pregnant" and "I don't want the baby, I'm not old enough for that yet…". There is a simple solution for this: do not have sex unless you are prepared for the fact that it may result in a new life. For this you need to be in a stable, loving partnership. Preferably, I think this should be within marriage - but if the people concerned don't want to hold to the binding commitment of marriage, then that's up to them, as long as the baby can be brought up properly within a safe environment. That's not to that sex should only be for makin' babies - of course not, but I only want to do it when I know that I could bring up the child if need be - take responsibility for my actions. You always have a choice - you don't have to get drunk, you don't have to have sex - and if you do, only you can be held responsible for your actions.

There are too many good reasons for not sleeping around, having one night stands or other non-committal sexual relationships for me to be bothered to list, but I think the most prominent include the dangers of STDs, and the emotional strain it eventually puts on you, meaning you can't hold down long-term relationships.

"Before you take another crack

and slap yourself on the back

before you tell me what you heard

and sum it up in one word

before you start talking s**t

before you throw another fit

Think again" ~ Excerpt from 'Think Again' by Minor Threat

It's quite simple, this one. I think taking drugs is really, really dumb. Sure, I know why people do it. I just don't ever intend to myself. Obviously, the dangers of crack addiction etc. are easy to see - and the only reason I'd take Ecstasy is presumably the same one as all the ravers - so I don't have to experience the mindnumbingly poor dance music. But I don't even smoke cannabis. I've been tempted to, of course, as so many of my friends do it - but I just don't need it. It's a waste of money, in my opinion, it wastes your time, and I don't care what people say in defence of it - it's messing with your brain. Now, if you've got a medical reason for needing it, that's fine by me. But I'd never use it otherwise. Why try to fool your mind into thinking you're having fun, instead of just actually having it? Drug dealers are nasty pieces of work too - so I'm certainly not going to support them, either.

Finally…

Well, it took a while, but those are the main reasons why I'm straight edge. It's just a name for the way I live anyway - and my politics and philosophies reach far beyond what I've said here, but I'm only talking about why I'm sXe, and don't want to take up all of h2g2's valuable server space with my rants.

DISCLAIMER

I expect that, if you've read all that, you're thinking "cor, that Mr T's a right apathetic, uncompromising and over-serious guy who doesn't realise that people do these things because they're fun". Please don't think this about me. I do not hold what people do against them because I accept that what I am thinking may be wrong. I may, one day, change my outlook. So I'm not asking anyone to be sXe - I'm simply explaining why I am.