As many of you may know, I have been very active in the alumni association of my alma mater, Williams College, currently serving on the Society of Alumni’s executive committee. Whenever we discuss the problems of drinking on campus and ways to promote responsible consumption of alcohol, we learn how the drinking age hamstrings the college, making it difficult to develop a sensible policy.
Such discussion have been ongoing at least since I was an undergraduate.
Rather than discouraging the irrational consumption of alcohol, the drinking age actually promotes it. It turns the types of beverages human beings have been drinking in ritual celebrations as well as social gatherings for as long as we have recorded our history into a kind of forbidden fruit.
Euripides records how the prissy Pentheus was punished for failing to honor Dionysus, the Olympian whose bailiwick included wine (among other things).
When people see wine, beer and other (potentially) intoxicating spirits as beverages to enjoy with their elders, rather than those to consume on the sly, they will be more likely to drink responsibly, particularly by learning about drinking from those who have been drinking responsibly for a generation (at least). If you start drinking among a group of adolescents, the age at which we are the most irresponsible, you will likely drink more irresponsibly, drinking among those with the least capacity to control their actions a spirit inclined to excess.
Studying in Germany, I saw many of my Teutonic peers drinking on regularly basis, yet encountered none of the binge drinking I had observed on American campuses. They grew up drinking beer. They did not see consumption of their national beverage as something to do just with your peers, but as an activity to enjoy with your parents–and their peers as well.
In a piece for the Wall Street Journal essay that he links on his blog, Glenn Reynolds addresses this very topic, where he reminds us that
If there were no drinking age, students could meet a professor at a pub to enjoy a beer and discuss the importance of alcohol to ancient ritual or merely to unwind together and talk about campus life. In short without a drinking age, college officials could more regularly integrate drinking into campus life.
Such discussion have been ongoing at least since I was an undergraduate.
Rather than discouraging the irrational consumption of alcohol, the drinking age actually promotes it. It turns the types of beverages human beings have been drinking in ritual celebrations as well as social gatherings for as long as we have recorded our history into a kind of forbidden fruit.
Euripides records how the prissy Pentheus was punished for failing to honor Dionysus, the Olympian whose bailiwick included wine (among other things).
When people see wine, beer and other (potentially) intoxicating spirits as beverages to enjoy with their elders, rather than those to consume on the sly, they will be more likely to drink responsibly, particularly by learning about drinking from those who have been drinking responsibly for a generation (at least). If you start drinking among a group of adolescents, the age at which we are the most irresponsible, you will likely drink more irresponsibly, drinking among those with the least capacity to control their actions a spirit inclined to excess.
Studying in Germany, I saw many of my Teutonic peers drinking on regularly basis, yet encountered none of the binge drinking I had observed on American campuses. They grew up drinking beer. They did not see consumption of their national beverage as something to do just with your peers, but as an activity to enjoy with your parents–and their peers as well.
In a piece for the Wall Street Journal essay that he links on his blog, Glenn Reynolds addresses this very topic, where he reminds us that
. . . over 130 college presidents, as part of something called the Amethyst Initiative, have called for an end to the drinking age of 21. They note that the higher drinking age doesn’t stop college students from drinking, as anyone who’s been on a college campus in the past several decades knows. It does drive drinking out of bars and restaurants and into dorm rooms and fraternity houses, where there is less supervision from the non-intoxicated and less encouragement for moderation.Emphasis added. As the blogfather himself would say, read the whole thing.
If there were no drinking age, students could meet a professor at a pub to enjoy a beer and discuss the importance of alcohol to ancient ritual or merely to unwind together and talk about campus life. In short without a drinking age, college officials could more regularly integrate drinking into campus life.
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