Ah, coffee. Who hasn't heard of it? Better yet, is there a person alive that doesn't drink or hasn't ever drank it? Personally, I don't, but I know a lot of people that do.As a side note, I'd like to point out that people who drink coffee on a regular basis (and are even addicted to it) have no grounds to judge people who take drugs, as caffeine is a drug, albeit a legal one.
Anyway, what I don't get is the odd culture of coffee people. Starbucks has normalized coffee to the extent that people who usually don't drink coffee find themselves dropping $50/week on those "delicious non-fat, half-caf soy lattes with room." Coffee has become commonplace in society and with that normalization comes a lot of problems.
The other day in my Economics class, my teacher was talking to the class and said something. Before that, I'd heard this girl talking about how she'd almost self-destructed because the bottom of her coffee pot was broken and couldn't make coffee that morning. After my teacher said something (I don't quite remember what), the girl raised her hand and asked, "Did you just ask if there are people in this class that work at night?" The teacher said no, and her response was, "Oh, I'm sorry. I haven't had my coffee yet."
This worries me on more levels than one. First off, it worries me that people are becoming too reliant on coffee to get their day going. I know it's possible to start one's day without coffee (even waking up before the sun) because I do it every morning. Secondly, it worries me because of what people who haven't had their coffee can do and would excuse because of lack of coffee. I know that asking a seemingly stupid question isn't that big a deal, but how long before someone gets in a wreck at 6AM and says, "Oh, I'm sorry officer, I haven't had my morning cup o' joe?" It may never come to that, but just imagining the possibilities is scary enough.
Along with people being stupid without their coffee are people who get cranky in the morning until they have coffee. Two words: DRUG. ADDICTS. As caffeine is a drug, people who are irritable when they don't have their daily dose of it are suffering from withdrawal. This in no way excuses people being assholes in the morning, but it does explain a lot as far as the mystifying behavior of the Coffee Addicts.
Another thing I've noticed is that the increased demand for coffee has led to places like Starbucks getting away with charging outrageous prices for that "caramel mochalatta zebra soy latte that you just HAVE to have." I mean, I used to go to Starbucks, but since I stopped drinking coffee, I've realized that, at $5 for a SMALL latte/chai/whatever, one can easily drop ~$50 every two weeks going to Starbucks every day. That equates to a whopping $1300 dollars a year. Seriously, if a smack to the face won't get coffee addicts off the stuff, maybe the math will.
And no, I don't have anything against soy lattes, but soymilk is disgusting.
So, I figure that there's no harm done if I don't drink coffee, it's just dealing with everyone else who depends on it to get their day going/keep them from being cranky/keep them from doing something stupid in the morning that's going to be the challenge.
