Day 26 of Dry July prompted by some thoughtful comments from one of my contacts, I've been pondering our drinking culture.
Day | Wednesday 26th July |
|---|---|
Days without alcohol | 41 |
Funds raised | $3,538.29 |
Badges earned | 3 weeks Dry |
I'm feeling | Optimistic |
Position on leaderboard | 6 |
In our DNA?
It seems to me that it is in our nature to seek out artificial stimulants like alcohol. The same behaviours that are seen in alcoholics can be seen in smokers, drug addicts or even in habits like my daily coffee first thing in the morning.
This is not limited to humans. Other primates such as lemurs and bonobos have been observed seeking out and consuming plants with psychoactive properties. Chimps and colobus monkeys eat caffeine-containing plants. Many creatures including elephants, primates and birds look for fermented fruit. I once planted catnip in my herb garden and the way my cat reacted to it made me feel like a drug-pusher.
Leadership and strength
It isn't immediately obvious what the evolutionary advantage of all this behaviour is, but there must be one, otherwise it wouldn't be so prevalent. Certainly, there has been no breeding out of the tendency in humans.
My own theory is that it has something to do with leadership. Maybe early humans sought dutch courage to embolden themselves before a hunt, or a courtship. You could imagine this would lead to better food and more offspring in that order.
The natural intoxicants in nature would likely be less powerful than our manufactured alcoholic products. Being less concentrated and harder to consume might mean that the advantages would accrue without the detrimental effects.
Certainly, we associate heavy consumption of alcohol with strength.
One of the very first laws passed in the New Zealand colonial parliament was to enable the consumption of alcohol - by parliamentarians. We expect our leaders to be able to get hammered as much as they like, although ironically in this country at least, there are limits to our tolerance, as many politicians have discovered.
Training our kids
One of the scariest things to discover as a parent is how much attention kids pay to what you do. If we sit down with a beer or a glass of wine after work, they are going to want to know what is so special about that glass of amber liquid that we are so fascinated by.
I don't remember enjoying my first taste of alcohol, I had to develop a taste for it. Put another way I learned to use it, the same way I learned to do everything - by watching those around me.
We tacitly and sometimes actively encourage young people to engage in rites of passage such as the school after-ball (much more exciting than the actual ball), drinking yards of ale at 21st parties and so on.
Little wonder then that these habits are passed on from generation to generation.
As my contact said, it's hard to imagine a world without it.
And it's all good clean fun so why wouldn't we?
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Thanks for reading!
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