Drinking Games Essay Example

Drinking Games Essay Example Drinking Games Essay Drinking Games Essay Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Drinking Games People consume alcohol for various reasons. There are those who take it (wine) with meals as it is said to aid in the digestion process, there are those who take it as a way of relaxing, others take it in order to have fun, others due to curiosity, others to â€Å"drown fears, sorrows and trouble†, just to mention but a few. As much as a little alcohol has been recommended as it helps in some body functions (digestive system), most countries have put strict laws on heavy alcohol drinking. Both Legal and economic tools have been used by policy makers to the maximum. This includes heavy taxation on alcoholic drinks, a raise in the drinking age from 18 to 21 years and the toughening of rules on drunk-driving (Gladwell 71). In general, drinking is associated with a kind of a weakness and a loophole to sin. That is why the Christians, Mormons, Muslims amongst other religions do not drink. However, Gladwell brings forth another perception of drinking that may have not crossed our minds before. According to him, a person’s drinking is not as important as how he/she drinks it (Gladwell 70). Gladwell goes ahead a gives a couple of illustrations to prove his point. In a story told by Dwight and Anna Heath, the Camba people of Bolivia had a rather interesting way of drinking. They held drinking parties, which comprised of a particular number of members. The members would drink, pass out, wake up and continue drinking. They drank an alcoholic drink, which they did not like for it tasted nasty. When investigated, the drink was found to be 180 proof. In fact, it was laboratory alcohol, which was thought that it could not be consumed by people (Gladwell 72). Despite all these, these people never drunk on work-nights nor did they attract any police, there were no arguments, sexual aggression, disputes, verbal misbehavior, amongst other misconducts associated with drinking (Gladwell 73). An Italian man was described as a man who drunk an 8 oz. glass of wine in the morning after the morning breakfast and a 24 oz. glass at noon after his meal. Yet, this man had only been drank twice in his life and his drinking never interfered with his work or his day-to-day activities (Gladwell 71). Lolli’s clinic in new Haven had a total number of 1200 alcoholics of which forty were Italians while the rest were Irish by the late 1950s. An anthropologist known as Robert B. Edgerton working in Central Kenya once received a warning to run away as a tribesman who usually got out of order after drinking, was coming his way. Before he could move away, the man had already arrived. However, he surprisingly greeted Edgerton in a calm manner and then moved on with his raged behavior. The man had beaten two people, knocked down a child and eviscerated a goat during the course of the day (Gladwell 73). What Gladwell has put across makes a lot of sense. However, there still must be something in our brains that is triggered by alcohol in order to make one behave the way he/she does when they consumes alcohol. Is it really how much one has drunk that makes a while man stand and abuse people who are old enough to be his parents, or become talkative when he is rather quite in normal circumstances. What about the girl who is more vulnerable to having sex when she is drunk than when she is not? Although Gladwell’s point of view is logic, there are also other factors to be considered. The Irish and the Italians are the same people in terms of species. There must be something more than the amount of alcohol consumed that would make an Irish man be more of an alcoholic than an Italian. It is also important to note that in an individual, there are always exceptions to the rules. For example, Tobacco smoking is known to be a major cause of lung cancer. However, there are those people who have smoked since the time they were teenagers and they are in their old age and do not have any signs of lung cancer. This does not stop smoking from becoming a major cause of lung cancer. Gladwell, Malcolm. â€Å"Drinking Games: How much people drink may matter less than how they drink it†. The New Yorker 15 February 2010: 70-76. Print.