Last time the media and the government (aren't those words interchangeable sometimes?) had an epileptic fit about the amount of alcohol people were drinking of a weekend, two things occurred to me.
The first is, that having studied British history at school, it became clear to me that ever since the Industrial Revolution (i.e: putting adults and children in factories and having them work extremely long hours for a pittance), a large swathe of the working population has always got p*ssed. To be fair, they didn't have many other options to pass the time on - most of them couldn't read and there was no telly. Their other pastimes were Church (because no one wants to burn in Hell) and to beat the wife - and isn't violence always easier and more fun when you are p*ssed?
These days we have more ways to spend our free time and more time to do it in. But people are still going back to their roots and spending most of their time drinking. But how can that be? We live in this wonderful age where we have more pocket money than ever before and more things to spend it on. Whatever you want to do can be saved up for (how quaint!) - I mean, charged to the credit card - and bought. Go and see the pyramids, the Aurora Borealis from an aeroplane, skydiving, stock car racing, diving on a reef... Whatever floats your boat, the possibilities are endless and yet the population can still only see as far as the weekend and how many drinks it takes to send themselves into oblivion.
So the answer cannot be as simple as making drinks more expensive or criminalising the ones who enjoy a glass of wine at home, banning happy hour and closing pubs. It must be a more fundamental change that's needed.
Could it be that nearly 200 years on from the Industrial Revolution, the majority of jobs people work are still boring, tedious, and in some cases against human nature altogether?
Hang on...Something's coming to me...
HOW ABOUT MAKING SOCIETY A PLACE WORTH LIVING IN?
Just a thought...
The first is, that having studied British history at school, it became clear to me that ever since the Industrial Revolution (i.e: putting adults and children in factories and having them work extremely long hours for a pittance), a large swathe of the working population has always got p*ssed. To be fair, they didn't have many other options to pass the time on - most of them couldn't read and there was no telly. Their other pastimes were Church (because no one wants to burn in Hell) and to beat the wife - and isn't violence always easier and more fun when you are p*ssed?
These days we have more ways to spend our free time and more time to do it in. But people are still going back to their roots and spending most of their time drinking. But how can that be? We live in this wonderful age where we have more pocket money than ever before and more things to spend it on. Whatever you want to do can be saved up for (how quaint!) - I mean, charged to the credit card - and bought. Go and see the pyramids, the Aurora Borealis from an aeroplane, skydiving, stock car racing, diving on a reef... Whatever floats your boat, the possibilities are endless and yet the population can still only see as far as the weekend and how many drinks it takes to send themselves into oblivion.
So the answer cannot be as simple as making drinks more expensive or criminalising the ones who enjoy a glass of wine at home, banning happy hour and closing pubs. It must be a more fundamental change that's needed.
Could it be that nearly 200 years on from the Industrial Revolution, the majority of jobs people work are still boring, tedious, and in some cases against human nature altogether?
Hang on...Something's coming to me...
HOW ABOUT MAKING SOCIETY A PLACE WORTH LIVING IN?
Just a thought...
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