To drink or not to drink?

[pierce]

Just out of curiosity, what does "drink" actually mean? Are we talking like two cocktails or a bottle of vodka.

[pierce]

I'm a 20 year old student living in the UK, so there's pretty much no way around drinking if I want to have a social life. Not that I'm complaining

I tend to take it a bit too far, but I've learned to appreciate hangovers. Also I can count my bad experiences with alcohol on one hand, so it's ok. There are times where a night is perfect without any alcohol, but they're not that common.

Thats pretty much the same story, if you grow up in the UK, your out every weekend once your 14-15. I don't think you have that everywhere.

[polishmike]

Just out of curiosity, what does "drink" actually mean? Are we talking like two cocktails or a bottle of vodka.

depending who you ask

[ProfMonnitoff]

Thats pretty much the same story, if you grow up in the UK, your out every weekend once your 14-15. I don't think you have that everywhere.

It was quite a culture shock. I grew up in Austria, so I had a glass of wine with dinner starting at about age 12, and from age 14 on often went to bars with friends for a beer or two. Growing up with reasonable consumption of alcohol is the standard there. Since then EU regulations have made that much more difficult, I now get asked for ID more often than when I was 14.

In the UK, on the other hand, people crack open the first beer at about 8, finish a 6-pack by 10, switch to vodka, and are absolutely hammered before even leaving the house. Then they drink more at the club they go to, and the next morning tell 'great' stories about how they lost their phone and got kicked out of the club for throwing up under a table. Even in more niche music scenes in the UK, drinking tons is the standard. I drink quite a bit here, but I can't compete with the English, and am probably better off that way too.

[stereophobic]

What bugs me though, is that people here as well think they have a better time when they are tipsy/drunk. Are your life as a consciousness individual so bad, that you have to escape from it once or twice a week?

In my case, I find that this quote rings truer when applied to drugs. Although there are plenty of apologists out there who make the case for drugs vs drinking.

It's not OK to binge on anything. Drinking in moderation is fine, go for quality over quantity and as long as your blood alcohol is just below the legal limit, you're not really doing your health any harm in the long run.

[pierce]

"What bugs me though, is that people here as well think they have a better time when they are tipsy/drunk. Are your life as a consciousness individual so bad, that you have to escape from it once or twice a week?"

If you look at the way people used to be in communities and then the modern world, it is a new way of living and unnatural to a certain extent. I see it all the time, people looking at the ground on the sub way, almost in a permanent state of defense against the people around them. Suppose you get so used to this state that it's the way you live and the barriers are always up. Its totally personal, but I do think that this disconnect is a shame to a certain extent.

What going out to a club does it breaks down these defenses and people meet people. I like that. I have met so many interesting and like minded people going out, that a lot of them went on to be true friends.

Sure there is alcohol and what else involved, but its the social aspect that we all like. We are luck enough to have found places where you have this community spirit, but its not everywhere.

[lowrey]

Then again, when you meet a lot of these people when sober, they´re shy and looking at the ground again.. Not all of them, but some. And if we have to drink to get involved with each other, fuck this world.

well, some of them could be more open second time around if they've met you in the described conditions before, it could break the ice and make the second time you meet them more relaxed. but to be honest I'm not really speaking from any experience, I probably haven't befriended a single person in a club or bar. but for example I remember back at university there were some people who I happened to bond with a bit more followed by some intense drinking.

that said, I don't really drink much, I can go a pretty long time with an occasional glass of wine, but I do like to party sometimes, which usually involves heavier consumption. though apparently I've gotten old as my hangovers are getting worse and worse, so I can't stay up late... sigh...

[pierce]

In every single culture since time and memorium people have been getting loose and partying. And long may it last.

I do think that in some countries you have a society and government policy that is geared up to control people and say what is right and wrong for motives based on religious tradition or even economic ones such as productivity.
We are constantly being bombarded with messages such as work harder, drink less, eat healthy, be environmentally friendly, don't drink, don't do drugs...
It works on some people and not on others.
Take Canada, my sister lives in Toronto and is bored. She litterly says that the Canadians are boring. Where as she loved Spain and had so much fun.

I think it is not a coincidence that you have such an open society in Berlin which was once the home of the third reich and a wall dividing the city. They have seen where top down social conditioning leads.

[kuugaia]

I see where you are coming from, but you try to make it sound rebellious to drink. Everyone does it...

This brings up a recent conversation I had with a 'sheltered' friend of mine. When asked, I mentioned to her "I haven't tried smoking or even any drugs". She was shocked at my response because I said 'or even any drugs'. According to her, its such a minority that have tried drugs that it's not even worth mentioning as it should already be a given detail.

Where am I going with this? I don't know, but to some people drinking is probably seen as rebellious. Well at least...till you're no longer sober. Others just see it as their every day life.

Was anybody else surprised that lowrey isn't a heavy partier? I just always figured, from the internet enigma form of lowrey in my head, that he was a party animal/socialite.

[DRRRK]

I don't know what should be rebellious about drinking. Eternal is right. Everybody does it and it would be rebellious not to drink at all if your partying. It easier to be rebellious when you're drunk than when you're sober. I regret if a person can only overcome his inhibitions on alcohol or drugs. I want to like my friends sober, not just after a few drinks.

that said, I don't really drink much, I can go a pretty long time with an occasional glass of wine, but I do like to party sometimes, which usually involves heavier consumption. though apparently I've gotten old as my hangovers are getting worse and worse, so I can't stay up late... sigh...

Yeah, Lowrey. I know what you mean...

[pierce]

Its not at all rebellious. Suppose its a cultural thing. Ever since I can remember my family and everyone of their friends have had parties in their houses, with friends around playing music, singing, dancing and drinking until all hours of the morning. Its part of the fabric of how I grew up and also everyone I know. When you have this culture you develop a certain outlook on things I suppose. "Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" so to speak.

So when I live in different places and can't find that same level of fun, because that what it is, I get bored.

[Fade to Black]

Oh, believe you me I dance alright, I just don't drink about it.

Oddly enough, two nights ago after dinner went down for a walk, this thread popped in my head and I had a Samuel Adams, just to get it out of the system.

[pierce]

Well thats what I like to hear. Think there is not enough dancing these days.

[Sombre]

Like ProfMonitoff, I'm immersed in a subsect of society where dirinking is the norm, and almost a prerequisite - walk around Boston on any given weekend and I promise you will see girls stumbling in heels and short skirts, and bros screaming at the top of their lungs. That said, I drink occasionally on the weekends, maybe twice a month, which is a significant increase over what I used to drink before I met my current group of friends. By "drink occasionally on the weekends," I mean about three to five drinks per weekend on average. I usually mean to have more, but I'm disgusted by the taste of alcohol when you drink it too quickly, so I usually stop there. That said, I don't believe in doing something you don't enjoy, and the pleasure of being under the influence never truly offsets the bitterness of the alcohol mixed with having to put in an extra half hour at the gym the next day, and oversleeping and missing homework time on top of that. So, in the near future I think I will decrease my consumption, and drink only to the point where alcohol could add flavour to a drink, rather than take it away.

I don't feel alcohol changes me much. I find boisterousness repulsive when I'm sober, and that holds when I'm drunk. I may laugh at things more spontaneously, but I am in general easily amused, so it doesn't add much. For some reason drunk people tend to be uncomfortable if there's someone in the group who chooses not to drink for no reason other than he/she doesn't feel like it. I think it's a stupid cultural expectation, but in such situations I'll have a drink so as not to be a killjoy for everyone. I found it alarming when, last week, two of my friends ended up drunk after saying they would be sober for two weeks. They lasted six days, and they broke because one didn't think he could go through the weekend without alcohol.

I do, however, enjoy a glass of port.

[pierce]

"Like ProfMonitoff, I'm immersed in a subsect of society where dirinking is the norm, and almost a prerequisite"