People are drinking less alcohol, at least in Germany. At least in part, that is probably due to the drug’s bad reputation. This reputation is well deserved, as 44.000 Germans die each year as a result of their alcohol consumption. Psychological or behavioral disorders caused by alcohol are the eighth most common diagnosis for people admitted to German hospitals. An interesting part of the declining alcohol consumption in Germany is that its bad reputation seems to have carried over to the industries producing it, as advertisement spending for alcoholic beverages has been steadily decreasing over the last years while beverage producers shift towards other markets. (All these facts and numbers were taken from “Deutsche Hauptstelle für Suchtfragen”)
Many people celebrate these developments and probably rightfully so. It is a valuable step towards a healthier society. So when I continue this post considering its downsides, don’t take it as an appeal to revert it. But what I want to highlight, and what I think too few people are talking about, is what services alcohol can provide to a society. And remember that I’m arguing this position from a perspective that has the same goal as those who’d prefer to ban alcohol outright: healthier people, less preventable deaths and less strain on the public health system.
If you are a hardcore alcohol critic, you might deny that it has any benefits whatsoever. But every drug has benefits it grants its users, else they wouldn’t be using it. In almost all drugs the benefits are outweighed by the harm the substance causes at some point, but that point is different for each drug. And just like there are benefits to the drug’s users, there might also be benefits to a society consisting of those drug users. In case of alcohol, that benefit is that it creates connections between people that would otherwise never have interacted.
Think about where people commonly found friends, acquaintances and relationships before social media and dating apps promised us the same thing but delivered something else. It was in places where alcohol was served. Bars, clubs, festivals, events, beer gardens and the like. I know writing about them in the past tense is a bit of an overstatement as clearly those still exist, but that culture is rapidly transforming which I’ll get to later. For now, let’s recognize that alcohol lowers your inhibition, making you more likely to interact with strangers in these gatherings where you can safely assume that they are as intoxicated as you so whatever you say and do is unlikely to haunt you later. Mind you, I’m talking about mispronouncing the name of your new spouse you just met or telling the bartender that you’ll name your first child after them. The little bits of ridicule you bring upon yourself to the amusement of the people around you. I know that some people also do terrible things under the influence, but I don’t disagree with counting them towards the obvious harm done by alcohol. Nevertheless, people doing very stupid, yet harmless things is a lot more common and it reinforces human connections like little else in existence.
And I know what argument is coming now: you can also have fun without alcohol. But can you, though? Just as the beverage producers shift towards producing sodas, establishments like restaurants, bars and clubs have shifted towards offering more non-alcoholic beverages as well. But that doesn’t seem to stop their numbers from rapidly declining. Part of that decline may be due to other factors, like increased operational costs, less purchasing power among customers and gentrification, but some of it has to be due to the decreased alcohol consumption. And when you think of the typical person who doesn’t drink alcohol, does their lifestyle involve going outside and hanging out with strangers? Those things just cluster around alcohol consumption, because meeting strangers without being drunk is super awkward.
I’m sure you’ll have plenty of examples for people who are super well connected without drinking alcohol, maybe you are one yourself, but you just have to accept that not everyone has a personality that supports this. Also, are the people you are thinking of well connected to people they met through having similar interests or goals, or do they actually have this wide mix of friends from all kinds of different social circles you tend to gain from going to a lot of parties? Because this network of social interaction in a diverse set of people is what ultimately prevents echo chambers and radicalization. Today more than ever, the fact that people tend to retreat way too much into their social comfort zone is threatening democracies in many western countries. Blaming all of that on the absence of drinking culture would obviously be too simple. But I’m sure it plays a role.
My point is that we see many worrying effects in our society, the rise of extreme opinions and division of society are joining an epidemic of stress and loneliness. And I refuse to believe that reduced alcohol consumption has nothing to do with it. As stated earlier, I’m not saying that people should start drinking more again. I’m just saying that whoever advocates for abstinence should have a plan for how to replace the positive effects alcohol had on society. How do you get socially awkward strangers to mingle with each other? Because this is what society needs. Otherwise, everyone will just retreat to their “safe spaces” and mingle with their peers which might be really comfortable to them but they’d all be living in parallel sub-societies that hate each other.
I don’t see alcohol as the panacea to solve all that. But I see it like a part of the system that is being taken out because it is causing problems but without being replaced by anything that performs its function. It’s like taking the suspension out of a car because it was broken and then wondering why the road feels so bumpy all of a sudden. I never hear this discussed anywhere, probably because people don’t have a good solution. I certainly don’t.
