When I was in high school, we went into the auditorium to watch a movie on the dangers of smoking marijuana. The movie was absurd, showing a single smoke leading to almost immediate heroin addiction and death. I was soon in college, where marijuana use was close to universal, at least in the portion of the school community of which I had knowledge. The difference between the reality of what I saw and the absurdity of that movie was so extreme I assumed that the other warnings in that movie had to be equally laughable. I no longer had any believable guidance for the world of drugs. Fortunately, I did enough research with more credible sources to make good decisions.
I recently watched the first part of the PDS series on prohibition and learned that a similar campaign was waged against alcohol consumption. That campaign was ramped up in the years preceding the passage of the prohibition amendment through the new growth of the movie industry, with movie growers being treated to short pieces even more absurd than the marijuana movie I was forced to endure. Some of those films showed people going from their first death to an alcoholic death within 24 hours. Those efforts (especially political moves to get the right people elected) led to prohibition, one of the greatest failures of all time, when alcohol consumption actually increased despite its illegality.
Once people determine that the warnings you have given them are absurd lies, you have no more credibility, and the people whom you warned have no guidance.
Only a few miles from the place where this man died is the island of Cozumel, one of the most popular dive destinations in the world. I cannot estimate how many thousands of divers go through short swim throughs there every year. If there has ever been a single fatality caused by a diver entering one of those swim throughs there (or anywhere else, for that matter), I am not aware of it. That is where I did the majority of my first 150 or so dives. I sought out every swim through I could. I loved them. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to navigate them without making a single touch on the walls, floor, or ceiling. It was obvious from the start that the "no overheads whatsoever!!!" warning was as much a lie as that marijuana movie. That left me for no credible advice regarding the more dangerous overheads.
I recently watched the first part of the PDS series on prohibition and learned that a similar campaign was waged against alcohol consumption. That campaign was ramped up in the years preceding the passage of the prohibition amendment through the new growth of the movie industry, with movie growers being treated to short pieces even more absurd than the marijuana movie I was forced to endure. Some of those films showed people going from their first death to an alcoholic death within 24 hours. Those efforts (especially political moves to get the right people elected) led to prohibition, one of the greatest failures of all time, when alcohol consumption actually increased despite its illegality.
Once people determine that the warnings you have given them are absurd lies, you have no more credibility, and the people whom you warned have no guidance.
Only a few miles from the place where this man died is the island of Cozumel, one of the most popular dive destinations in the world. I cannot estimate how many thousands of divers go through short swim throughs there every year. If there has ever been a single fatality caused by a diver entering one of those swim throughs there (or anywhere else, for that matter), I am not aware of it. That is where I did the majority of my first 150 or so dives. I sought out every swim through I could. I loved them. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to navigate them without making a single touch on the walls, floor, or ceiling. It was obvious from the start that the "no overheads whatsoever!!!" warning was as much a lie as that marijuana movie. That left me for no credible advice regarding the more dangerous overheads.
