What are your thoughts on Alcohol

[Rogue Syrup]

It's a very dangerous substance, yet it's a sad indication of human nature that people feel they have to intoxicate themselves in order to escape their world or even to have fun.
I wish there was less violence involving alcohol, it can turn even the most kind hearted person into a monster.
However i enjoy the social company you get from bars and pubs. If only people could realise that you can enjoy yourself even more when you're sober.
sad times.

[New Mitanni]

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

I'll drink to that! Just don't ever drink cheap tequila -- you know, the kind that burns. It burns going in for a reason...

I gave up drinking tequila, cheap or otherwise, after the time I downed two tequilas after two Yukon Jacks, which in turn followed six Seven and Sevens. I had to be hauled across campus and dragged up five flights of stairs back to my dorm room after that one. And that was just the beginning of the suffering.

[Scotch City]

Alcohol is delicious and anyone whos says anything bad about it will be banned from my country

Scotch is the breakfeast of champions

[Scotch City]

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

I'll drink to that! Just don't ever drink cheap tequila -- you know, the kind that burns. It burns going in for a reason...

The burning takes away the pain!

[Sierra Lobo]

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

I'll drink to that! Just don't ever drink cheap tequila -- you know, the kind that burns. It burns going in for a reason...

The burning takes away the pain!

Its all about the BUZZ.

[Sociopathic Platypii]

It's a very dangerous substance, yet it's a sad indication of human nature that people feel they have to intoxicate themselves in order to escape their world or even to have fun.

The urge for humans to intoxicate themselves varies from person to person. I would hardly call it 'human nature'.

[The Norse Hordes]

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

I'll drink to that! Just don't ever drink cheap tequila -- you know, the kind that burns. It burns going in for a reason...

I gave up drinking tequila, cheap or otherwise, after the time I downed two tequilas after two Yukon Jacks, which in turn followed six Seven and Sevens. I had to be hauled across campus and dragged up five flights of stairs back to my dorm room after that one. And that was just the beginning of the suffering.

This explains a lot.

[Vetalia]

It's a very dangerous substance, yet it's a sad indication of human nature that people feel they have to intoxicate themselves in order to escape their world or even to have fun.

Hah, even animals get drunk once in a while from eating berries...

To be honest, though, there's nothing wrong with getting intoxicated to have fun. If you're responsible and in control of yourself, it really doesn't matter what you do...except maybe to the people who enjoy stomping on others' fun, who are not coincidentally spectacularly boring, often miserable people who are more in need of an altered consciousness than anyone else.

[Vetalia]

if there were nothing wrong with the culture, people wouldn't be wanting it.

That makes absolutely no sense. Otherwise, the teetotaling religious fanatics in Saudi Arabia who jail you for drinking are the ones on the right track...

However, it's a flawed line of reasoning. I like alcohol because of the taste of good beverages and the pleasant effects of moderate intoxication, not because I want to escape the world around me or somehow hide from my problems. Even if that is "escapism", it's only escapism in the same sense as playing a game or reading a book...

[Samatolian City-States]

It's a very dangerous substance, yet it's a sad indication of human nature that people feel they have to intoxicate themselves in order to escape their world or even to have fun.

The urge for humans to intoxicate themselves varies from person to person. I would hardly call it 'human nature'.

It's not really human nature as much as it is an indication of our predicament. I think back to those three guys sitting around, drinking spiced victory gin and waiting to die.

[Vetalia]

It's not really human nature as much as it is an indication of our predicament. I think back to those three guys sitting around, drinking spiced victory gin and waiting to die.

Yeah, but they were drinking themselves in to a stupor off cheap gin, not relaxing with some good beers and a group of friends. I guess it is an indication of our predicament, though: alcohol serves both as a symbol of good times and fun as well as the dark side of attempting to escape our problems and the violent, abusive nature some people hide behind a facade of normal behavior.

The Greeks had it right when they portrayed Dionysus as a god of mirth and madness.

[Rhodmhire]

A foolish thing to abuse, but not something we should try to ban.

Sure advertise against it, and encourage people not to use it at all, or just in abusive cases--but the last thing we need is to ban it.

EDIT: Also no tax increases, it just drives those who are addicted into the poorhouse, and it raises taxes for many making under $250,000 a year.

Disclaimer: Yes, 'twas an Obama reference. Wanna' fight about it?

[Vetalia]

EDIT: Also no tax increases, it just drives those who are addicted into the poorhouse, and it raises taxes for many making under $250,000 a year.

It also guarantees they're going to go after something else and provides a nice chunk of change to our friends in organized crime. Of course, that second part might explain the eagerness of some politicians in certain regions to pass new taxes on alcohol and tobacco...

[The Infinite Dunes]

Alcohol can be so tastily awesome. At a quick estimate I have about 20 litres of spirits and a smaller selection of wines and beers in my cupboard. All of them that I love... except the Vermouth. Maybe it's because I got the cheap bottle... I didn't want to splash out on a drink I'd never tried before.

But yeah, you shouldn't try to hide alcohol behind taxes and scaremongering. It's been tried before, and the fact that this thread exists means it obviously doesn't work. What needs to be combated is the allure of alcohol. The boredom that leads to abuse; the formality and properness that leads to people needing drink to relax; and finally the sense of rebellion and naughtiness that is associated with alcohol.

I enjoy my alcohol, and occasionally I get drunk as a result. Never planned, just accidentally, and never too much as I listen to my body and it lets me know when enough is enough. So I can be as merry as merry can be, can't quite walk straight, but will wake up with a spring in my step the next morning.

[Maerngau]

Having done some tremendously stupid things while drunk (that I still regret on a near daily basis, 20 years later) and been married to an alcoholic, I believe it *has the potential* to be some evil shit. I think we'd be better off as a society if pot were legalized and alcohol were illegal.

But really, it's one of those parts of life that legislation probably cannot fix. Banning alcohol would result in more organized crime and gangs and not much else. The "European" approach probably works for a lot of people. It did not for me or my ex-wife.

I still drink one/two beers when I play tunes with friends (in Irish pubs), along with the occasional glass of wine at dinner. I wish I had started out here rather than binge drinking in high school.

[Chrobalta]

Pretty extreme options in the poll. Eliminate the drinking age and lower the purchase age to 18.

[Pope Joan]

I used to live and work near the town of East Smethport, PA.

During prohibition, the mayor there was a known supplier of bathtub gin. The Feds tried to catch him but never could.

One time they searched his house, yes they had a warrant, and once again found nothing. On his way out, an agent drew a glass of water from the mayor's tap to quench his thirst.

It was gin.

The guy had filled all his plumbing with it.

So, forget prohibition, it just won't work.

I personally have a great fondness for liquor, but when i indulge, people around me seem to become strangely morose and quarrelsome.

Odd, that.

[Tedthehunter01]

I think we should drink until no one cares about arguing about alcohol anymore.

[Barzan]

alcohol is boring.
people turn to it because they've been brainwashed into associating imagination with immaturity.
if there were nothing wrong with the culture, people wouldn't be wanting it.

Except that your stated stereotypical view of alcohol only reflects Anglo-American "culture". People don't drink to get drunk and act like arse-holes in Germany and France. One needn't get drunk to enjoy alcohol, and not everyone who drinks does so to get drunk.