What do you do with a Drunken Sailor

This is the first book clubber that I listened to instead of read. I'm glad I did, because the librivox reader was so terrible that I had to go back over and over chapters that reading I would have glossed over.

My Friend John Barleycorn

I agree that alcohol takes down social inhibitions, and can understand the camaraderie in drink. I imagine football games and Christmas Parties would have poorer attendance if there weren't any beer. The smell of most alcohol nauseates me personally, and while I find drunk people amusing for moments, I dislike spending very much time with people when they drink, not because I'm uncomfortable being a non-drinker, but because I prefer being with sober people.

Prohibition

I don't know how honest London was, but I think I agree with prohibition in the US. I think agency is a sacred thing, but I don't think alcohol should be legal. I know that when president Hinckley mentioned the repealing of the amendment he wasn't referring to prohibition, but to following our leaders. However, President Grant called Prohibition “the greatest financial and moral blessing that has ever come to humanity"; when the church ignored his council and voted to repeal the amendment, he said that some members who sang “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet” seemed to add the words, “provided he keeps his mouth shut politically." I think this has implications today on other issues.

I believe that we should strive to make illegal things that the Lord has forbidden. While I find London's approach (summed up crudely: votes for women--they'll fix us right sober) a weak and infeasible approach, and while I think some of the results of prohibition were terrible, I believe in government with laws and consequences. I know, there are eternal consequences for disobeying the commandments, but it doesn't seem incongruous to me to have similar, but more universally enforceable laws on earth.

Great listen. For the next while, I'll have the Librivox reader's "John Barleycorn" ringing in my ears.