Party Vibe

sorry to hear about this and I hope that you can eventually get back on track. Thorazine is nasty stuff, I thought it was rarely used nowadays :yakk:

I see what you mean as there are a lot of people with underlying problems/issues who self-medicate to an extent with recreational drugs and alcohol – until recently I was a fairly heavy user of amfetamines and occasionally K to combat ADHD (undiagnosed since childhood!) and occasional bouts of depression, as well as just for fun/partying but found that they could on occasions make the condition worse (mood swings etc).

It was a vicious circle in my youth as my family initially did not approve of my lifestyle – and then I dropped out of uni (drugs wholly fuck over your attention span) which made things worse for a few years,

At least I was lucky during the IT boom to nearly always have a job and contribute to my family (when I lived with my parents) and that smoothed over the cracks.

The only thing that “sorted me out” was actually the discipline of “employment” (not always normal “work” but even just sorting out stuff in squats/communal spaces), but I agree that in a ruthlessly competitive world its not always easy to get this.

And you are a skilled person who has previously been in employment in a professional trade, so it hits harder when you become unemployed.

There are people like us who go through bad stages in our lives but want to sort ourselves out, I think by a combination of supportive family and hard work I’ve done OK as I’ve now got a decent job I enjoy more than previous ones, and own my own house.

The problem in EA though is though (it was explained to me by MissMushed who posts here occasionally) is there are lots of unrepentant drug abusers who are playing the system and becomeing as dependant on welfare benefit as they are on drugs, long-term. Many of them are 10 or 15 years our junior, some started taking drugs at middle school age(!) and many don’t care and take handouts until the Establishment gives them a kick up the arse.

I’m not saying we should go to a market-based approach like other countries and remove benefits, but these issues shouldn’t be brushed under the carpet..

thats also a fair enough statement – and why I am very suspicious of charities. As for eco/activist stuff, TBH any stuff I do is at street level rather than via orgainsations – used to help people set up squats / social centres / info shop type places (but no one here seems up for it, and many younger people don’t even know these places existed!)

A lot of the inequality IMO is caused by the artificial concept of stocks and shares creating “capital” which doesn’t even exist (as opposed to actual assets of businesses..)

I am all for workers co-operatives and social enterprises though.. (a good example of one can be found in every town/village round here :groucho:)

Also too many people are willing to feed the machine.

If I wanted to I could easily get double my salary if I gave up raving tomorrow, got an accountancy qualification (could get first stage within a year by studying at weekends ) and worked in “dirty old Londonistan”, but fuck commuting two hours and worrying about being stabbed for my laptop in Stratford when I can do the same job here out in the countryside in much nicer surroundings,

But so many people here just “think of the money”, I’ve noticed Ipswich increasinly turning into a dormitory town of North/East London. and I’ve only been here a year….:you_crazy

I am so tempted to go “baaa” at the people exiting Ipswich station at 18-00-19:00 when I cycle back to town, but I’d probably get an ASBO :laugh_at: