But I'm not really talking about me. So often I will hear someone talking about a night out and the person listening will immediately ask "Did you get drunk"? It seems like, from my view, that this question is almost being interchanged with the question "Did you have fun?". So why is it that my generation seems to have to write themselves off in order to have a good time?
Now I'm not saying that drinking is a bad thing, nor am I saying that even getting drunk is a bad thing. But I ask the question to all of you who read this... do you go out of your way to ensure you get drunk often? Do you drink only to get drunk? Do you ever feel like you have a good night out sober? I really do have to wonder some of the people I know would answer these questions.
Having to be drunk in order to enjoy yourself is essentially alcoholism. It isn't "a beer with breakfast" alcoholism, but it is alcoholism just the same. Maybe they just don't actually like the company they keep. Maybe they just want to not remember their night so they can make up fake memories. What it is I don't know, but we need to start asking ourselves why does an excess of alcohol have to be a compulsory component of a good night out? Can't we all just have a few drinks and have a great night to remember, and not forget!
Sometimes it's fun to turn your brain off and just let loose and have a good time, which alcohol does on some occasions. Then people seek to recapture the good times when they've been drunk at the pub and the cycle continues.
ReplyDeletepeople have been getting drunk ever since they were able to. take a look at the history books, the censored parts, and you will see what i mean.
ReplyDeletein regards to our generation, some people are not as eager to expose themselves to the people they spend their time with for whatever reason, be it that they are shy or emabarassed of what people think of them....etc. not everyone is as loud and as out there as you are, not automatically anyway. sometimes a little bit of trust can do the trick but sometimes chemical reactions work better.
so to answer your question, perhaps we don't need to get drunk to have a good time, perhaps we just need to be nicer to people and more accepting of who they are. in this way allowing people to expose who they are to the world without feeling like they have to hold back a part of themselves incase the world doesn't like who they are. if everyone is drunk no-one is going to remember that one stupid thing that someone said during the course of the night.
thanks for the pondering karl, and i hope you can appreciate this point of view.
JS
I'm not going to lie... I have had a number of alcohol fueled nights that have been fantastic, and I'm not saying that alcohol cannot make a night better. I guess the blog was fuelled by the fact that I keep getting asked the question. In fact, something I didn't mention in the blog is that a lot of the questioning is coming from minors.
ReplyDeleteMaybe its because of my job, but I do see myself in many ways responsible for them, and it annoys me that they seem to be so focused on alcohol.
JS (and I can't work out who you are lol), you do make some interesting points... particularly the one about me being an extrovert anyway :)
Karl, get the fuck drunk!
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