# What's the point of living a life free of vices?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-point-of-living-a-life-free-of-vices/385095>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [December 21, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-point-of-living-a-life-free-of-vices/385095 "2006-12-21T18:06:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-point-of-living-a-life-free-of-vices/385095/121 "2007-01-04T02:21:55Z")

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[QUOTE=cowgirl]  
I look at it this way. When I graduated from university I went travelling. That was basically two years of a mind-boggling diversity of vices, and I loved every single second. When I look back on those two years (which actually represent quite a high opportunity cost in terms of my career development) I absolutely and positively say “Yes, that was an abundant and fulfilling life.” I developed strong lifetime relationships with amazing people, I learned a tremendous amount about all kinds of things (including a much more nuanced understanding of myself), I had more fun than people who “don’t need vices to have fun” could possibly understand (by definition!), and I never would have done any of that if I had not indulged in the vices I did.

When I meet people who are my age and who “don’t need alcohol to have fun,” and then I hear a bit more about their lives, nine times out of ten I think “crikey, I am SO GLAD I’m not you, my twenties were far, far rewarding than that.”  
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(Firstly I’ll presume that you meant to end by writing, “…far, far more rewarding than that.”)

Every human being experiences only one set of human sensations, namely their own. You can never experience the exact experiences of someone else, only hear or read their descriptions of experiences and try to judge them by your own experiences. Hence when you judge these non-drinkers to be joyless clods and you claim to have had more fun, what you’re really saying is that their explanations sound less fun _to you_ than a drinking experience. There can’t be an objective comparison of fun levels. It may well be that these people have the capability to extract levels of fun from their non-drinking experiences that you’re not aware of.

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**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-point-of-living-a-life-free-of-vices/385095/122 "2007-01-04T06:01:44Z")

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[QUOTE=cowgirl]  
I have spent a lot of time with a lot of people who really really like booze and/or drugs and/or sex and/or what have you. None of them have ever claimed that they can’t have fun without their chosen intoxicant(s).  
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Well, then, they don’t have any difficulty in seeing that life would still have a point even without those particular enjoyments, and thus are not the subject of the OP.

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