by Justin Mccauley

Created on: December 16, 2008

Addict: The mere utterance of the word brings forth images and a stigma so strong that it transgresses the standards that 'normal' society holds dear. But is it not at all possible that the entire human race can be addicted to something no matter how trivial? Does not humanity itself depend on the path of addiction to further develop itself and dare I say it, evolve? Where we would we be if some illiterate caveman had not been addicted to cave-heating and hot food? The pursuit and even improvement of human life can be traced to all sorts of addiction. Human beings became hooked on wheat and subsistence farming. So instead of roaming the countryside searching for food, we became sedentary beings, living in villages, stuck to the couch and dependant on our peasant brethren harvesting the crops.

And then we have the wheel. Besides the occasional fan of bondage and slavery, many men did not like dragging large clumps of rock to build their masters' tomb. Although the hot lash of the whip maybe something that more modern creatures are addicted to, it was the easy path of 'no work, more laying about' that our ancestors were enamoured with. Therefore it was only a short hop, step and a very slight jump, for some lazy minded individual to invent the wheel.

Ah modern gadgets. How we became so addicted to them! There was the well, the windmill, the guillotine (a modern miracle of mass murder that the French were addicted to in their hundreds of thousands), the bottle, the can; anything that made our lives easier to live.

And it is within that last statement that we find the kernel of truth that has driven mankind in its addiction of various things since it first raised its knuckle from the ground and began to walk upright.

Let's have a look at London shall we? Not so long ago, maybe ten generations of hangovers spent, London was a morbid and decrepit place to live. The squalor and decadence of the city left many people with no avenue of enjoyment save for that downward spiral into alcoholism (not much has changed there i hear some of you cry, except today it's pills, thrills and belly aches). But why did they do this? It was not good for them. It swallowed every penny they earned. They could not hold down a good job because of it. The answer is pure and simple. It provided an escape route from their mortal constrictions. To be a peasant in London provided no great joy. Drunken and licentious behaviour did. It made life a little more bearable.

Just like strawberry milk does

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