The Drunkard's Progress

Today while browsing our clipart vendor, I came across this Prohibition-era poster decrying the consumption of alcohol. This sort of thing always cracks me up. In the same way that Reefer Madness cracks me up. No one gets high on "grass" and acts like a lunatic as this film would have you believe. In reality, those kids would've sat around vegging on pre-war snack foods like pork rinds and soda pop, not cruising around town like speed freaks.

Or the "This is your brain on drugs" campaign of the 80s. I mean, I love fried eggs, and that commercial always made me want a fried egg. It didn't scare me away from drugs. It made me hungry. Even now, watching it on youtube, I'm feeling really tempted to go down and fire up the stove.

These sort of scare tactics rarely ever work in any meaningful way. Real life tends to be far more persuasive than the images that are pounded at us on television or billboards.

Notice the inclusion of a weeping wife and child for that "extra something." But I also notice something more: the smoking factory in the background. So, what are we to deduce? That this man chose the quick route by drinking, when he could have toiled away fruitlessly in an unsafe factory under horrible working conditions and long back-breaking hours? That doesn't seem better, honestly.

In case you can't read the notes, they are:

Step 1: A glass with a friend.
Step 2: A glass to keep the cold out.
Step 3: A glass too much.
Step 4: Drunk and riotous.
Step 5: The summit attained. Jolly companions. A confirmed drunkard.
Step 6: Poverty and disease.
Step 7: Forsaken by friends.
Step 8: Desperation and crime.
Step 9: Death by suicide.

That's right folks, take a drink and someday you'll shoot yourself in the head with a dueling pistol. What I find additionally interesting is that we all know that recovery takes 12 steps, but we find out here that the descent only takes 9. That doesn't seem quite fair.