So what are you doing this weekend? If you're between the ages of 21-45, I think I can safely assume it will involve liquor. Going camping? Bring a cooler of Coors. Bowling? Fill that plastic cup. Going out for dinner? Inhale the scent of wine, then ingest enough of it to make your lips change color. I assume this not only because of personal experience, but because I am also reminded of it by advertising. Do you remember the commercials you watched as a kid when your favorite cartoon was on? Toys, orange juice, cereal; these were all sold to you, and in many cases partially sold to your parents who thought many of these things would help you have a healthy childhood. These days I rarely watch TV without seeing at least one commercial for beer or vodka.
I guess that part makes sense; you want kids to be healthy enough to get to an age where they can legally consume alcohol, plus a lot of people would be uncomfortable seeing an 11 year old passed out on his porch after a bender. A 22 year old though? That's one wild weekend, and a funny Instagram picture. It's not really that shocking to see something like that for a lot of people, hell if I saw it I would probably jest that they "almost made it." Alcohol consumption is normal.
It's so normal in fact, that when I turn down drinks when I'm out, people get slightly upset then tell me to drink it a few more times. Maybe the people I've hung around are alcoholics...or people want to get me drunk and take advantage of me, I don't know, but it's an experience I've been through quite often. I'm not "straight edge," I just don't drink spirits. I like beer and I stick to it, I had my time with spirits, but after we broke up she just wouldn't stop calling me. I take my beer in slower doses now too, she could be a little clingy. I do this because I don't enjoy getting "wasted." Correct me if I'm wrong, but puking is usually the body trying to get rid of something it does not want in it, and if high levels of alcohol consumption causes vomiting, I can only assume the body doesn't want that much alcohol in it.
So why do people drink if it isn't really good for you? Well I drink because it has an enjoyable effect, changing the way you interact with the world around you for a moment. Some things feel better, foods taste better, and some music can sound better. This doesn't explain why some people drink until they can't feel though. It also doesn't explain why some people drink so often they develop a tolerance. For those people, I believe the real reason for drinking is they think they should be drinking, and drinking that much.
I'll always remember something my father told me once, "You know what'll never go out of business? A liquor store. You know why? People drink when they're happy, people drink when they're sad, people drink to celebrate and to forget, and sometimes they drink just cause there is nothing else to do." He told me this because he wanted to open a liquor store, I am writing it here because its a really curious thing. How did alcohol become so integrated with human civilization? How did it become such an integral part of the human experience?
If you think about it, there are some much more powerful drugs that have much more exciting or devastating effects than alcohol, and there are also drugs that have effects of similar magnitude, but none of these are as prominent in humanity as alcohol. This means it can't be the effect. You could say it's been around for the longest, but that's not true either. Hallucinogens have been around as long as alcohol has been, probably longer, so it's not that either. I think it's because of the same reason people do other curious things; mimicry. Monkey see, monkey do, then other monkeys see, and they do...then they do so for so long it becomes part of the rituals on the Planet of the Apes. But it can't just be mimicry, it had to be mimicry of someone with influence. The cool kids do it, so I'm going to do it! That sort of thing.
Even in this day and age that's true. Haven't you seen the Above the Influence ads? They're a double entendre; above the influence of drugs, and above the influence of my peers. I probably didn't need to explain that, but lets move on. These days if you're not drinking by a certain age, you're living on the fringe, you're part of a small group of people who are given the side eye when you reject that red plastic cup. You might be a "nerd," or a "geek," or something. I'm not up on my demeaning lingo.
Earlier I mentioned "straight edge," which is a group of people who consume no drugs. To many, they're weird and off-putting. Some people might ask if they're recovering alcoholics or had an alcoholic family member or something, cause, you know, how can you NOT drink? Adults drink, that's what they do you know? Watch any sport. The commercials tell you you're supposed to be drinking a beer, and you should also be driving a new, or pre-owned (fancy talk for used) car. I thought it was wrong to mix drinking and driving...oh well. The upper-class drinks too by the way, and if you want to be part of the upper-class, forget the beer, wear a suit and toast to your luxurious life while drinking rum. There's also something for you leather fetish having rebels out there, here's this vodka, it's dangerous...just like you (insert wink here). Don't worry, alcohol companies try to cover every demographic.
Alcohol surrounds everything in an adult's life. Unless you're one of those fringe people, it's on your mind quite a lot. I mean, women have articles of clothing called "cocktail dresses," a dress specifically made for a night of alcohol consumption. I know a few guys who only own dress shirts apart from the shirts they wear to work because bars can have dress codes. I dabbled in fine arts for some time, and do you know what we did at gallery openings? We drank alcohol. About 20 minutes (some people far less) of actually looking at art, then a few hours of drinks and socializing (and some people wonder how a white canvas with a red line painted on it is famous). Even if you are someone who doesn't partake in the summoning and consumption of spirits like a necromancer, you're constantly reminded that you don't by people who do and by advertising.
This all became more apparent to me when I decided to cut my alcohol consumption down. It was one of those things you only really notice when you see it from the outside. When I stopped accepting invitations to bars or alcohol fueled parties, I also pretty much stopped going out. That was 90% of what the people I knew did. It was also what most of the people they knew did, and they knew a lot of people, and those people knew a lot of people that did it too! It seems a little weird for something that has many negative effects. I don't know, maybe I know the wrong people, or maybe your plans this weekend have a common denominator with the past few weeks you didn't even think about.
With a history of causing harm in various ways, you would think alcohol would be something for rare occasions, and used moderately, instead it's a staple of social gatherings. If there is one thing I haven't noticed much of a shift in lately it's in the alcohol consumption of society. I have seen changes, but it remains a constant. Rebels drink, conservatives drink, and people right in the middle drink. Will I be around to see the days when the statistics regarding alcohol consumption decrease? Who knows. In the mean time I'll leave you with this quote:
"My peers, lately, have found companionship through means of intoxication - it makes them sociable. I, however, cannot force myself to use drugs to cheat on my loneliness - it is all I have - and when the drugs and alcohol dissipate, will be all that my peers have as well." - Franz Kafka
- Dennis
No comments:
Post a Comment