I am convinced that North America drinks to excessive amounts. I cannot get over how many cans and bottles of beer are gone through in something like "Thanksgiving". Have a look at the lovely thread in the Beverages forum. Nearly the whole thread is packed with alcohol. Why? The smell alone makes the bile rise to my throat.
Where I live, everybody (or just about everybody) drinks alcohol (execpt me). Everyone you see has a friggin' beer in their hand, 24/7. I feel like a real oddball because I don't drink. I'm surprised that I haven't seen dogs and cats drinking beer around here. I have a degree in history, and when we were studying American religious history, one thing that I was struck by was that the prohibitionists, when they were clamoring for alcohol to be outlawed, emphasized how it was the cause of poverty and many other social ills. Nowadays we seem to see it the other way around. I think the prohibitionists were right about alcohol being a major cause of poverty and many other social ills. I'm not in favor of outlawing alcohol (or anything else that people put in their bodies) but I do agree that it's the cause for an enormous amount of misery, and it's detrimental effects are seriously underestimated. Just about the only businesses in the area where I live are what Texans call 'beer joints'-that is, bars that serve only beer or wine. They are absolutely everywhere. Drunk driving causes a large number of deaths around here, and although I normally don't advocate the police doing anything that they aren't already doing, I think they ought to station one police car right outside each one of these 'beer joints' to catch drunk drivers leaving, until waiting for them to kill somebody. There's one of these 'beer joints' right at the end of my street. I used to be a paramedic, and saw how much misery that drunk driving and alcohol consumption in general can cause people. Way too much, in fact.
Yeah, there's a fair few of my friends who drink to excess, though not too often which is good. I really don't understand it. I don't mind having a drink with friends but the extent to which some of them drink just seems mad, not that I can afford to drink (or would really wish to) that often.
Yes, everyone drinks. However I was looking at a study some anthropologists did and they evaluated all the garbage in a certain city in the States, and the number of alcoholic beverage containers and bottles were enormous. This is disheartening. Thank you for the response. May I ask why you don't drink? Not even a sip? Not even at a wedding? Your wedding? It's just overwhelmingly strange to me. It's even stranger that the older you get, the MORE alcohol is not only acceptable but you're entirely alienated or misunderstood if you choose not to drink.
Well, I drank a few sips of wine at a Christmas dinner that a friend of mine invited me to last year, and that's about as far as it goes. And I could very easily live without that. I don't like the way that alcohol makes me feel, the way it affects me, the smell, anything. I rarely attend weddings, and the few I've been to, I didn't drink alcohol. When I got married, we served American and Vietnamese food to our American and Vietnamese guests, and since neither the American groom nor the Vietnamese bride (nor most of the guests, to my knowledge) drank alcohol, we saw no need to serve it. My ex-wife told me that in Vietnam most wedding receptions didn't serve alcohol anymore because of the large number of accidents that were associated with people drinking at wedding celebrations. I never saw my ex drink a drop of alcohol and she never saw me drink any either. There wasn't any reason to start at our wedding reception. If I did drink, I'm sure that would expand my social contacts considerably. But the problem is that I don't want to drink alcohol simply to have a more active social life. I think that's the wrong thing to base a social life on, anyway-consuming alcohol.
I think we have a very unhealthy attitude towards alcohol, especially in n america. We aren't taught moderation at all, or how to enjoy it without getting drunk off our asses. Don't get me wrong, I do like a lot of alcoholic beverages, I even like getting drunk from time to time. But I'd choose having a glass of wine with supper a couple times a week over getting drunk nine times out of ten. My mom started giving me sips of wine when I was 11 or so, didn't like it much at the time but it was always ok for me to ask for a sip of what someone was drinking. It wasn't this mysterious thing that I wasn't allowed to touch til I turned 19, I was exposed to it in small amounts (aka moderation) and taught to learn how to handle it. I think that teaching moderation along the way is a lot healthier than the moment you turn 18 or 19 or 21 (depending on the province/country) you can have all the booze you want
Alcolhol Is Good To Brake The Ice, To Get To Know Each Other More Easily And Feel Warmth Between People But It Is In Reality Quite Fake The Hole Thing A Dead End , Leads Nowhere, Alcolhol Sucks Even Here In India Where You Are Suposed To To Be Doing Other Stuff(or No Stuff At All) People Are Get Even More Drunk That At Home, Because It Is Cheaper And Averbody Else Is Drunk. I'm Tellin You, I Usually Opndring A Couple Of Drinks A Month In Europe, Here In India, Yesterday We Started The Day W Beers, Than Vodka, Gin , Beers, Went On The Whole Day. No More. Havent Had A Drink Since Yesterday, Only Juices And Herbal Teas For Me From Now On! I Feel Like My Mind Is Dirty And Polluted When Drinkin Too Much It Makes You Cheap.
I dunno about this. I've found the opposite. As I got older my body couldn't handle booze anymore and many of my friends are the same. What used to be "Let's kill a 40ozer or you're a pussy " became " Ok, maybe I'll have two drinks but that's it and it's all cool. " I've observed that age generally brings a degree of responsible understanding and none of my peers would even dream of harshing or alienating someone because they didn't want to drink.
alcohol is just not my buzz.. but everyone here in toledo drinks.. i hate it.. i don't care if people drink, i just wish they were smarter about it!
