I'm continuing to follow quaintly Quaker threads, family-friendly, even though we're talking about slaves, sex, and alcohol.
Kids have seen Breaking Bad by a tender age, if left alone with the remote. I'm not pandering to a kid audience necessarily, as when I dive into Codesters I'm also talking to my adult peers, other teachers such as myself.
The prohibition against trafficking in military soldiers (mercenaries, idealists...) kept Quakers on the margins of the English Empire's great defense industry. Steel, railroads, ship design, other dual use skills and products, kept the families alive. Early US Navy ships had at least one Quaker ship designer behind them I'm told, by my Uncle Bill (mentioned towards the start of the above video).
But what about alcohol, widely considered a sinful substance or a source of sin, one of the devil's best tools, when it comes to undermining a happy family life? I know I drink, and I'm a Quaker, but I also see how it corrupts and destroys once no longer used in moderation. The Alano Club is one of Portland's main rehab hubs, as featured in the movie about John Callahan, a celebrated son of Portland.
Some Quakers were involved in the rum trade is what I'm thinking, but I'm still at the trailhead on this one. I probably know more about Quaker whalers than I know about Quaker rum runners. Plus I've stumbled on stories on Quakers on the other side, hoping Prohibition will stick, and/or seeing the uphill battle law enforcement had been given. Money flowed freely around and through the cops, just as it does today.
However, unlike many if not most Quakers, I'm not one to moralize against casinos. I see the archetypal significance of like Donkey Island or whatever we called it in Pinocchio, a scary place where the wages of sin were pretty nightmarish. I admire many an underworld figure who works on making sex, drugs, rock & roll, less lurid, less formulaic, but Puritanism is not to be scoffed at, as a demonic power. Smile.
