4 ms·
Ever? Like they go on vacation to visit their families, and they shouldn't be allowed to drink or smoke? I could maybe see this for the highest leadership--th
by saulpw 3y ago
Ever? Like they go on vacation to visit their families, and they shouldn't be allowed to drink or smoke?
I could maybe see this for the highest leadership--the President, 4-star generals, people who are politically or functionally on-call 24/7. But for everyone else, the rule should be, don't show up to work impaired, either drunk or stoned or hungover. (Though I'm not sure how to deal with chronic pain conditions in that case).
- bill_joy_fanboy 3y agoFor an intelligence officer, I would say, yeah, you should probably never be high or drunk. Maybe "never been high/drunk" is too strict. If you're mopping the mess hall, you can probably go home and have a six pack if you want. Just not on the job...
- tmpX7dMeXU 3y agoWhat!? That’s absurd. Have you considered the practical implications of that for even a moment? Who takes that job?
- gorlilla 3y agoPuritanical nutcases would be my guess.
- bill_joy_fanboy 3y agoOr, we could call them non-degenerates. You can call them whatever you like, I suppose.
- andylynch 3y agoMormons, apparently. They also tend to have good foreign language skills and a willingness to serve. But they represented in the FBI etc to the point it's slightly problematic. The drawback GP is missing is that selecting too heavily from one group can have unintended adverse effects since you lose out on diversity of ideas and approaches - I would absolutely expect many intelligence officers to drink and do other things people might frown upon, because very often the people they need to know and talk to _won't_ be teetotallers or care much about such things.
- bill_joy_fanboy 3y agoA lot of people would probably be willing to give up a minor drug or alcohol habit to have/keep a high-paying intelligence job. I would certainly accept being "always sober" as a condition of employment if the job was one I really wanted. I can't find the study, but I seem to remember that alcohol consumption follows the 80/20 rule. A small amount of alcohol consumers consume basically all the alcohol, with non-alcholics consuming very little. If you consume very little, it's probably not a big deal just to go without completely.
- NegativeLatency 3y agoI think I might prefer a high president than a drunk president if a surprise ww3 broke out.
- hollerith 3y agoI wouldn't. Hard-drinking military leaders have a good track record, e.g., U.S. Grant, whereas the world has little or no experience AFAIK with high leaders.
- tmpX7dMeXU 3y agoYou mean to say that there isn’t as big a public record of leaders consuming illicit substances?
- hollerith 3y agoGood point, but regardless of the reason, there remains the lack of a publicly-documented track record.