It's been a while since I picked up my sword! The renovations are finished, things have cleared up a bit at work, I'm feeling more or less okay, so I can give it a try.
Especially since I picked a good place to pick up from—that very same cliffhanger. Just so you know what we're talking about, let me remind you that the previous episode ended with a black jeep moving swiftly towards the Friday Happiness Pizza Party. For me personally, the news that this party was outdoors, and even in the mountains where it can get pretty cold at night, came as a bit of a surprise. I had only the vaguest idea of what this whole gig was about — supposedly a rave, and supposedly they bake pizzas there, if you make it in time. Luckily, we arrived right on time — around ten o'clock, I'd say. You could immediately tell the place was popping — even a quick glance revealed dozens of cars parked nearby, but you couldn't hear the noise or see the stage lights from the parking lot, which meant the line of cars stretched even further down the road. And so it did, plus we had to climb a hill to get to the gates.
The territory of the mini-fest is located on the hills, and essentially neo-hippies live there in a sort of commune. Moving there to live and volunteer is easy; the non-profit crew that organizes it all has a website fridayhappiness.org.
At the gates, we were greeted by this funny sign, and in fact, more than one.
Practically "Bees against honey." Considering that Portugal has the most comprehensive decriminalization in the world, it's doubly funny. And yes, it works much better than the so-called "War on Drugs," the internet is full of links and videos about studies on this, so I'll be too lazy to provide them.
I recently happened to listen to the Expanding Mind podcast, the Cognitive Liberty episode, and there they once again touched upon the topic of how it's very difficult to separate things like mental health, personal integrity and identity, and religious beliefs on the one hand, and arbitrary desires on the other.
For example, how do you like the idea that in Peru, Colombia, and other Latin American countries, they traditionally brew tea from coca leaves. These countries carved out an exemption for themselves from the UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances regarding the consumption of such tea (in all other countries, all substances containing cocaine alkaloids, including coca leaves, are banned). The rationale goes like this: the lifestyle of the highlanders, including their physical labor, way of life, folklore, and traditions, includes such a drink. Roughly like our tea from a tea bush. This idea is totally moronic — are people in Peru genetically completely different, and for us the coca leaf is terribly dangerous, while for them it's just a regular energizing drink? Does this mean that if I put on traditional Peruvian clothes, wrap myself in an alpaca wool poncho, and adopt, say, the traditional religion of the Incas, I'll suddenly gain the ability to drink coca tea, having not possessed it before?
No, of course not. Such tea already doesn't differ much from the Camellia sinensis (tea bush) tea in our daily lives. No one around here falls into paranoia that a person who drinks six cups of coffee will suddenly start robbing and raping the people around them for a new fix. But if you take coca tea — upon crossing an imaginary line on the map, it suddenly becomes a bringer of doom, leaving weeping mothers in its wake.
So, illegal psychoactive substances are bad, kids, don't use them. It's worth remembering, however, that according to many criteria of the WHO and relevant research centers, legal substances — alcohol and nicotine, in particular — are much more dangerous and harmful than most of the illegal ones. Worth keeping in mind if you're choosing the lesser of two evils, I think.
It's better not to use anything at all, but rather meditate in the Vipassana style for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, as bequeathed by the venerable S. N. Goenka, now deceased. For instance, Yuval Noah Harari, the author of "Sapiens," is one of the latest to join the movement (Pdf copy). And before him — many other media personalities. Here is what Keith Ferrazzi, author of "Never Eat Alone," writes:
We were offered to listen to a talk by a short, stocky man named S. N. Goenka, who practically radiated happiness. He was going to share with us how he had found peace of mind, health, and happiness in the ancient tradition of Vipassana meditation.
Yours truly also gave it a try once, but my willpower only lasts for rare ten-minute spurts. I haven't given up hope, though. This turned out to be a long one, and I never even got to the party itself. But at least it was educational.