[NON-BLOG] Drinking Culture Question
Mar. 30th, 2004 02:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldToday's a beautiful day in Kingston, at least relatively speaking compared to the drab cool days of winter hopefully behind us all in southern Ontario. I'll be checking papers, I fear, but I hope to spend some time outside. If worst comes to worst, my office at least has a window. Later tonight, I'll be going to Tango as part of an English graduate students' celebration of the end of term. I've got half of my TA essays to check, true, and three essays to write, but there's enough time. Besides, tapas are fun. And I've got a legitimate excuse to wear my blazer!
This impending visit started me wondering. It's almost a truism in Western popular culture that people who, after they've been drinking a lot, do embarrassing or stupid things claim that they were so drunk that they had no idea what they were doing. I never got into drinking culture in high school, or even as an undergraduate student, so I was never able to judge the accuracy of these claims first-hand.
As a graduate student, though, I've probably indulged more frequently since August than in the rest of my life to date. Possibly my self-education is lacking in certain unspoken elements that people who begin drinking earlier in their lives absorb; one of the major flaws of self-education, as I understand the concept, is that you miss out on the practical experience that provides a necessary supplement to whatever theory you've learned. Regardless of this, my experience to date has been that while excessive drinking removes my inhibitions, it doesn't make me act in a way disregarding my wishes, instead simply removing my inhibitions to behave in certain ways. I knew what I was doing, after drinking; I was simply more likely to do it.
I think that this personal discovery of mine, contradicting as it does cultural dogma, can be explained in one of three ways, some of which are mutually contradictory:
Thoughts?
This impending visit started me wondering. It's almost a truism in Western popular culture that people who, after they've been drinking a lot, do embarrassing or stupid things claim that they were so drunk that they had no idea what they were doing. I never got into drinking culture in high school, or even as an undergraduate student, so I was never able to judge the accuracy of these claims first-hand.
As a graduate student, though, I've probably indulged more frequently since August than in the rest of my life to date. Possibly my self-education is lacking in certain unspoken elements that people who begin drinking earlier in their lives absorb; one of the major flaws of self-education, as I understand the concept, is that you miss out on the practical experience that provides a necessary supplement to whatever theory you've learned. Regardless of this, my experience to date has been that while excessive drinking removes my inhibitions, it doesn't make me act in a way disregarding my wishes, instead simply removing my inhibitions to behave in certain ways. I knew what I was doing, after drinking; I was simply more likely to do it.
I think that this personal discovery of mine, contradicting as it does cultural dogma, can be explained in one of three ways, some of which are mutually contradictory:
- People know this, but just don't talk about it.
- I'm an exceptional drunk.
- I just haven't drunk enough.
Thoughts?
