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Straight edge is, in essence, a philosophy, but a redundant one at that. My reasoning is that you do not need to "claim" edge or embellish your body with tattooes to solidify your allegiance to a clean lifestyle; it's a superfluous distinction with which I've seen too many people become pompous and condescending. There are, however, people I know that have grown exponentially and not had to suffer the opportunity costs of an excessively hedonistic lifestyle.

I'm not a smoker, nor a drinker, nor a swinger. I whole-heartedly condone a clean lifestyle, but do not adopt the title of being edge. As a community, straight edge can help one establish a sense of self-worth, but with that also comes pride. And with pride, some people (some of which I've had run-ins with), become surly assholes. For me to assume that true of all people would be a slipperly-slope argument, so I base my statements mostly on the people I've met. Like drown_with_me said, every philisophical faction has its extremists, just as religion has its fundamentalists. If you are straight edge but also respect the choices other people make, much power to you.

For the record, I have a couple friends, one of whom is a fundamentalism Muslim, the other a fundamentalist Christian. They adhere calmy to their religion, but also respect the choices other people have made to find religions other than their own. I think that is very cool.