I am not ruling out the possibility that lack of sleep brought me to the point of this. But here it is anyway, a first public attempt to defend the philosophy of not drinking (my comment is labelled with my name). It is a generally indefensible position in modern society given its popularity, but I do think that the logic plays itself out in favor of not drinking, given careful thought. Whether or not that makes any difference is a different story...
I'm reposting it in my extended entry. Feel free to voice skepticism. Keep in mind the context of the philosophy of the blog where I posted this when you read it.
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Where does the choice to intoxicate oneself fit into a model of the modern enlightened mind?
I ask with reference to the "stiff drinks" your bartender serves because there are several points about this action which, from my perspective, fall far outside of rational self-benefit.
And let me preface by saying, I am referring to behavior-altering consumption.
1) Alcohol is treated by your body as a poison which it labors to filter out. Drinking enough causes the body to vomit in a self-defense mechanism to save itself from poisoning. Self administering poison is generally considered bad for your health.
2) Alcohol inhibits growth of synapses in your brain which is why being drunk is frequently associated with memory loss. Other things which cause memory loss (concussions, fainting, excessive fever) are generally considered bad for your health.
3) People are more likely to make bad, life altering judgement calls when under the influence of alcohol (sleeping with the wrong person, damaging relationships, property, etc).
4) Alcohol is addictive. Some people have genetic dispositions to alcoholism. But beyond this, even for those whom it is not physically addictive, the role that the consumption of alcohol plays as a recreational activity encourages its use as a coping mechanism for rough patches in life. This means that the negative consequences of 1), 2) and 3) are more likely to happen.
5) The euphoria of alcohol amounts to "empty calories" of life enjoyment. In the same way that real empty calories give us energy without real nutrition, the fun that stems from getting drunk is rarely of the kind that adds value to the substance of our personalities. While fond memories may arise from activities conducted while under the influence, your non-drunk self cannot take full credit for the actions because the "lowering of inhibitions" effect of alcohol is frequently responsible for the good time. Since your drunk self has more fun than your non-drunk self, you are incentivised to get drunk more often, and disincentivised from actually lowering your inhibitions. This incentivises the preservation of a "double-life", the you who you wish you were (drunk you) versus the you who you really are (self-conscious you). In contrast, overcoming inhibitions without alcohol causes those accomplishments to factor into your conception of your non-drunk self, thus enabling you to carry that confidence into more facets of your life.
I resonate with many of the principles behind your blog; particularly the deconstruction of our modern activities with an awareness and skepticism of those behaviors and beliefs that our species are disproportionately inclined towards. I feel that the widespread societal encouragement of behavior-altering drinking logically falls into the category of an irrational behavior that we engage in due to features of our "caveman" minds. For one thing, the euphoria associated with drinking causes us to place a disproportionate amount of value on it (as we do with tasty things that are bad for us). For another thing, the social norms and rituals associated with drinking irrationally dispose us towards it as a means to greater social interaction (i.e. we view it disproportionately as a good/acceptable thing because it is so commonly associated with good company/socialization.) So right there you've got irrational deference to "what feels good" over "what is good for you" as well as irrational deference to the herd mentality.
It just seems ironic to me that our species has evolved from millions of generations of organisms which were incapable of valuing long-term benefit over short-term benefit, and one of our major recreation activities is to bring ourselves, mentally, right back to that condition for kicks. It reminds me more of the action of a lab rat fervently pressing a lever for another hit of cocaine than it does the activity of a rational, well-adjusted human mind.
Thoughts?