Alcohol

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about the original source for the moment

For some reason most of the non-drinkers seem to be very opinionated about alcohol. Well, I`m one of them.



So lets see...basically with the word alcohol we, the common folk, refer to a collection of poisonous beverages that we use for recreational purposes. It has a variety of tastes, colours and poison-water ratios.

Now....how does it work that we drink poison recreationally?
There are lots of ways e.g. hallucinations, brain damage, relaxation... In case of alcohol: for some people it's taste, for some it's the confidence boost, for some it's the stupidity (the one they gain, not the one they are already sick with).
Taste I cannot really comment on. I don't particularly enjoy the taste of any alcohol at all, but I guess you can, with time, get used to it like you get used to tooth paste. Though I still don't believe that people start drinking because of the taste...
Seems to me that most people drink alcohol mainly to boost their own confidence. Even the ones that claim to drink it for the taste. Society is kind of odd in that regard, because for a huge chunk of it drinking alcohol represents masculinity, strength, social superiority and...well...fun. Thus people feel like the gain all of that just by drinking. Also some people openly admit that they drink alcohol to gain confidence, having the illusion of becoming braver as they get drunker. Well, I can't disagree that very often there is a lot of stupidity in bravery, so they have got their point.
Now, for the stupid part...well, that's the true, the main reason why alcohol works the way it does. It literally makes people dumber the more they drink it. When people become drunk, their neurons actually loose their perceptiveness as they gradually loose their ability to concentrate and consequently their brains quite simply stop filtering information in a proper way. It's one of the first things people notice as they start drinking and in a way it offers them an escape from their own thoughts, their own sanity which sometimes can be such a burden. Unfortunately it's not so easy and the effects of alcohol are not really lasting...be it bad or good.

Still, the question "What is alcohol actually good for" remains open.
Well, it's easy and complicated at the same time. Firstly, in small doses, like all the poisons, it's good for our body, for our immunity, heart etc. But nobody really cares about it, it's just a convenient excuse.
Psychologically, however, it's good for the previously mentioned confidence boost. It's not the best method, but sometimes it's enough to push someone do the obvious thing. Sometimes it may be good to make people  loosen up when they are too smart for their own good, though, again, it's not the best way, even among drugs there are some less damaging ones that work better for that purpose e.g. marijuana.
But those are really rare cases when it's actually needed and you may use alcohol only because our society has adapted the use of it as a norm thus it's very conventional.

Have to admit, that from time to time I too have felt the urge to try out alcohol and to prove to the world that I can drink it, I just choose not to. We can call those time experiments. And I did get some experience from those experiments, experience that revealed to me two things. First, much like with hypnosis, the alcohol doesn't really give you the previously mentioned effect of loosening up and boosting confidence if you don't believe in it yourself. I did get dumber, my brain didn't work as well, I couldn't properly intake and work information and remember stuff that happened. But nothing really, during or after the process, made me feel better about myself or world around me. If anything, just clumsy and handicapped. And the memory loss from alcohol intake is nothing chemical, nothing brain damaging or mystical, it's the same loss of concentration that causes it. As you loose concentration and ability to filter information, your brain just takes in any kind of information as unimportant and thus places it in your short-term memory and that's why it fades so fast.

Additionally I would like to say that I don't really condemn the use of alcohol, even if I will never really approve of it. And I do accept that people, who don't usually drink, may experiment with it...it's sometimes useful to at least know how something so mainstream actually works. Well, maybe I would even encourage people, who haven't really tried alcohol, to do it. What I do not encourage, however, is to do it in small dosages or with light % beverages. Goddamn, if you drink, you drink, don't just sip your tongue. It's useless waste of money if you don't actually get drunk :)

And lastly...don't, just don't be an alcoholic, don't drink on daily basis, just do not. There are tons of healthier drugs, less wasteful addictions and way to spend your money. There may have been time when it was the best way to loose yourself, but humanity has long since evolved way past that point and now the world is full of things that are bad for you that you can enjoy. Just Stop, Think and Find Another Way !