The same old vices
Whoever is free of vices, cast the first stone. Unless his vice is throwing stones. In that case, point the other way. But never say “never”, never say “I will not drink this water” and never say “always” either, because you can get into a mess from which you will never come out.
But in this world there is something for everyone. There are the “classic” viceslet’s say, like faso – in all its versions -, alcohol, timba, fafafa, price marking… those vices that when you have them, you know that some purist is going to come to break your purities.
And others that it is not known if they are vices, or if they will be: note that there are always strong discussions with the law of decriminalization of drug possession. But… if they apply that law, does the drug go from addiction to vice? And what happens if the law has some legal vice? And if a law is “nullified”, does it have to go to rehabilitation? In that case, wouldn’t it be better to be outside the law?
Here is another example: the vice of being outside the law: the vice of striving, the vice of smuggling, the vice of spying, the vice of speculating, the vice of blackmailing, the vice of wanting to “democratically” overthrow democratic governments.
As you will see, there are vices that are not easy to leave. And for that there are institutions type “Vicious Anonymous”, which arise as help. An acquaintance of mine tried to get into Vicious Anonymous. Not because he wanted to quit, but because he wanted to remain anonymous.
It is interesting to note that when you have a vice, people immediately tend to ask you “Why do you do it?” “Don’t you realize that it hurts you?” “Why don’t you invite?” And it doesn’t happen with other things. No one asks you “Why are you using mayonnaise?” “Do you realize you’re addicted to mayonnaise?” “Are you sure it’s “good” mayonnaise?”
Eye: There are vices that are legal. There are dozens of legal drugs such as tranquilizers, anxiolytics and Netflix. Not to mention alcohol in all its formats, which come with a legend like: “Drink in moderation”. What if one doesn’t know any person named Moderation to invite? Also, it’s hard, because how many glasses is moderation? Can a moderator of an event drink alcohol?
There are also modern vices, a product of technology: Check email every 15 secondseven if you have so few acquaintances that you don’t even receive spam, send two hundred Whatsapp messages, when it would be much faster to call, check Instagram or Twitter likes or see how much money you’ve lost since you invested in Bitcoins.
And vices that seem innocuous, like googling yourself, to see if you appear on the internet. Or much worse: Google yourself every half hour, to see if you suddenly became known, or if something interesting happened in your life.
More legal vices: the accumulation of things, particularly books, CDs or tupperware. Or the accumulation of children, dogs or cats.
Many people had gastronomic vices, like that vice of eating every day, but the vices of the remarcadores and speculators put an end to those vices. Not to mention the vice of sushi: now, with pink salmon at impossible prices, there are many who are using white salmon and painting it pink. What’s more: there are some sushi houses that are directly painting the salmon on the rice.
More one hundred percent legal vices: caffeine, energy drinks, suck on a ginger rootand everything to keep you wide awake to be able to dedicate yourself quietly – put it – to your vices.
Sweets and chocolate… that is also a vice. I can even eat tripe stew with chocolate. It’s not very rich, but I can eat it, I can.
According to many scholars, sex can become a vice. They do not clarify if what becomes a vice is a lot of sexual activity, or the opposite.
But it can be seen that vices are not well regarded, because the dictionary of synonyms gives these: defect, imperfection, fault, lack, weakness, addiction, bad habit… wow! If it seems that even looking for synonyms is a vice! And it’s not that I want to complain about vice, but if everything you like or makes you feel good can become a vice, in the end you have to agree with the great Antonio Machado, who used to say: “the lack of vices adds very little to virtue”.
And I better leave this topic here, because I get addicted and I can’t stop. I can not stop. I can not stop. I can not stop…
