#3 That's the key to this particular loon, I think. The kiddies, and many of their advocates, deny that Better Living Through Chemistry can upset the balance of all the juices that keep the brain stable, and in some cases can introduce psycosis. Some, and probably most, people go through life indulging in recreational medication now and then with no long-term ill effects - but not all people. Mailbox Boy probably had the same set of latent flaws in his skull we all do, the same flaws we apply self-control to. With the aid of some happy juice, his became cracks, then gaps, then fissures.
Mom and Pop probably were clueless; who wants to even suspect their kid's become a drug head? The friends, part of the majority who can throw off most of the effects, didn't even notice that he was still crackers when the substance abuse wore off.
I'd guess that his choice in music made matters even worse. The willingness of Today's Youth (oh, God, I feel old...) to subject themselves to hour after hour of propaganda verses is pretty depressing. Those who deny that listening to hour after hour of "life is awful and so am I" should listen to the Horst Wessel Lied seven or eight times and see if they feel an urge to march around with a thousand others in natty brown uniforms. Sometimes I think the music industry is our Grand Muftis. |