Featured Alcohol and it's role in our culture

[CardBoardBox]

"" I know a disturbing amount of folks in radical communities who spend their entire income on alcohol and tobacco. People who shoplift from the local food coop because they don't want to pay for food will head down the street to the chain convenience store and pour the tiny bit of money that they do have into some of the most wicked fucking corporations in operation today. There seems to be an incredible blind spot around tobacco and booze with regards to ethical consumption; kids who'll demonstrate against Walmart or Exxon for their labor or environmental practices will then turn around and buy cigarettes and beer from stores that have devastatingly negative impacts on local communities and that were produced by companies that are central to everything that's awful about global capitalism.""

Just some food for thought. I stole this from Riotfags "Towards a less fucked up world" zine. It's a nice read. Sobriety within the alternative lifestyle we all have in common is such a rare thing. More often than not I find myself mystified by the usual "fuck the corportation' drunk punks who are... well, just as reliant on the system as everyone else they bark about.

 

[CooperBoo]

alcohol is a major part of every culture, ya just dont know it cause it aint your culture.
my reasons my drinking so much is that if i didnt, i'd realize what a downward spiral my life is going.
somewhat of a cultural release. alcohol fueled my anger and frustration with that kinda society, always been opposed to it, but alcohol made me do what i did, an i will forever be grateful.

 

[acrata4ever]

hmm people who do people who dont. but nobodys an alcoholic. hi im acrata im a non drinking alcoholic.

 

[Earth]

wow, this is one heavy thread.....
My drinking career started in W.Berlin, Germany in 1981 when I was 16.
By 82, it's safe to say it was going to be a part of my life, and it was throughout the rest of the 80s till mayb 89 when I started to see things a little differently - but there was no way I could kick that habit for more than a month or so...
Today, thirty years later - I've decided that it's time to put the plug in the jug for good.
I see all the harm it's done to me physically, emotionally, and not too mention wrecked 3 very good serious relationships over the past twenty years, well - ok... maybe since 1995 on........

Why is it such a part of our (word being loosely defined here) lives??
Well, for starters it does make one feel good - but the day after is a whole 'nother story because I never bought into that drink your way out of a hangover type thing...
But it's also a 'common ground' - just like smoking - for social situations - and provides a means to speak.
Some can drink and be fine. I'm what is called an allergyic drunk, because of my low blood sugar (hypoglycimia) - the drink makes me powerless and I do much wrong - knowing full well that it's wrong too - but do it anyway...
I can't explain why.
I also for the most part prefered to drink alone and either listen to music or go for a long walk.
My 2nd ex Gina told me that I drank to relive my past, and she was right................
That picture of me and my dog - I was totally feeling it - and it was taken about a year and a half ago back when times were better - but now that I think about it, were they really??
All I know is my dog keeps me straight, and now that I realize that what little tipping of the jug I was doing - right up until this past Sunday even - is causing more harm than good. It causes me to lose free time, which I never get back. I figured that out just recently. Once that time is gone, it's gone forever...
Now the real fear is what next??
If I ain't drinking - my options socially will be limited.
No more trips to the pub or fun and mayhem in the studio - but it will also allow me to do things I have not done in years - paint, record, etc...... and that far outweighs any of the supposed fun aspects of getting loaded - at least for me.

It's weird - because in the NYHC scene back in 82, it made no difference if you were straight-edge or no-edge because it was the scene itself - the music which pulled us all in together. By the time I got away from it, I saw how drugs were becoming a more focal point and saw good people - friends - like David from Reagan Youth - go down that bad path of no return BUT we all did to an extent. It was an escape from the Big Apple, which by the mid to late 80s was rotten to the core. I myself couldn't leave fast enough and eventually I did, one state over - cleaned up my act - only to return two years later - meaning to drinking on a regular basis... Why?? Maybe it made me feel like I was a part of something, I don't know - but anyone who says quitting is easy (I've done it thousands of times) is wrong, I think the only thing I've got going for me this time is I'm finally ready to retire from it, and spend the rest of my life focused and with my dog and four cats, of who I learn from each and every day - now that I allow myself too...

Sorry for going on - I had something to say - but it got lost in the translation here.
Good thread going though, hope what I rambled about adds something to it worth reading..
Respect.....................

 

[Gudj]

Whoa it's funny that this thread got resurrected.
When I wrote it I was drinking, but have been sober for a bunch of months now and have again been thinking alot about alcohol, but this time in relation to activism and my personal life and less about traveling culture. This morning I thought of starting a similar thread because I forgot about this.
Anyway, nice to see all the discussion.

 

[Yani]

Good thread ... it brings mixed feelings ... unresolved stuff, you name it.
I know at times rum (for some reason the only thing I like) has brought out things I like in me, but never anything productive or brilliant, really.

I've read a lot of this thread with sadness for all of us who are sensitive enough, have the 20/20 vision of not being content in this ridiculous system of things where we can easily be victims. I personally refuse to play the monopoly game and help feed the "great parasite" but even though I don't have a clear answer, or a clear vision yet of the game I will be inventing and its rules, it seems futile to allow booze to control my life ... to numb me and ultimately take away the only power I have!

It's a stupid trade of different and equally destructive masters.

I need to be lucid. I control the drinking. The drinking does not control me. Alcohol is not my friend, it never was.
If it feels good to connect with someone I want to learn to do it naturally, so that together we might do something great.

Alcohol does not have to be a part of our culture, but it is because we feel desperate.
Fear ... what a waste of emotion!

 

[kurbster]

I've never been a big fan of going to the store and buying alcohol. Love getting it at the bar though. Free booze is good booze of course.

 

[acrata4ever]

hey you 3 thanks for sharing. i went from drinking 151 to sterno and once drank industrial toilet cleaner in a bag thinking it was a 40. yeah i miss it and theres times i just wish i could drink myself to death. i play out. but if im not onstage i cant have fun in a bar. and i cant deal with drunks spitting in my face that smell even if theyre hot and throwing themselves at me. and im really sick of hearing go to a coffee bar. everyones got headphones on and their nose in a laptop or book,or getting paper cups to go. in europe you get a ceramic cup, theres a table cloth, you sit and enjoy your coffee and theres no such thing as to go (going nowhere) and its ok to talk to people at other tables. if theyre busy they will tell you so. but no headsets. and when people do talk in bars theyre usually miserable blubbering about some sad sack shit. yeah nothing drives the blues away like depressants. pffttttt.....

 

[Menyun]

I have serveral reasons for drinking.... Among youth i would say this is the easiest one... As a teen its somethin adults can do but they wont let you do it... so its readily avialible and a way of rebelling. As an adult its either because you got addicted at a younger age or its for a multitude of other reasons that are more specific to the user which being a social amplifier is probably a top contender for that. Aswell as just out of pure boredom. For me the top reason I drink is cause I have severe anxiety around large groups of people that makes me very unpleasent if not violent. Unfortunately this includes when I'm around my family, however when I come to the family reunion buzzed up they know why and they'd rather me be their drunk then their completely sober. Other times would be sleep related... this includes everything from bad weather, nightmares, or some type of physical pain... Alcohol is my drug of choice and I use it as such. Its the only strong pain killer I dont need a perscription for. Give me a 30 pack of keystone and about 2 -3 hours and ill sleep through a tornado(speaking from experience). I would like to say im not an alcoholic but I would say that would also depend on what a alcoholic is considered to be.. for me I think of someone that can't quit which I can stop any time I want. If I get in a place where im either alone or around very few people for a extended period I wont drink at all.

P.S ALSO lol because I'm the best DDD in Oklahoma, Funny when random people let me drive them home in their car when we're both drunk and I'm more drunk then them.

 

[sideshowbxb]

Alcohol, I heard once somwwhere they believe that Babylonians first started the common practice of making ethyl alcohol, you can make it from grains, fruits, basically anything with some sort of natural 'sugar' source, not man made, yeast, and then some time, i imagine somewhere way back in time,, they have been prolly been using juices since the beggining of time, but somewhere way back when, some dumbmuther had left it out and all of us know the smell of alcohol, its abundant today, i can imagine this fella getting challenged by this other fella, to drink the foul smelling juice water, and so the poor smock takes a swig, he relates this to the other fella, about how he suddenly feels jubilant and really able to talk to the asshole sitting right next to him, the fact he feels less pain, and how time kinda feels a little slowed down, and so the other fella joins in drinking, just what i think prolly really happened, the rest is history, it spread around to enough people, boom, i dont believe it is good to be an alcoholic, to have to have a drink everyday or you will go into convulsions, because i dont like the fact i cant do what i want without having it, i think of these pill society-types the same way, i believe the govt is condoning this pill crap because its something they can tax, but if they legalize marijuana, which is a natural pain-killer, natural pacifier to aggressive behaviors, they wouldnt be able to tax it, they call it weed for a reason, you can grow about anwhere, but it does the plant alot better if you can put it in its natural enviornmental conditions, alcohol is only a problem for a person if they make it a problem, just like marijuana can be a problem if we make it a problem, because really, come on folks, theres a point we all smoked to (if your a pothead you know what im talking about) where you just too damn stupid to do a thing, and if you smoked anymore at that point, it would be no use, because youve already gotten as high as you can get, its at that point i put it down for a couple but maybe a couple days later, once im through with what i need to do for that day, smoke, society will never be able to stop alcohol from flowing, nor the weed from toking, because society all ready accepts it, the prohibition during the 20's for example, tried to put it damper on alcohol and it did a bit in the beginning, but then, well it became underground, it became a source of power and money for bootleggers, mafiaosos, and the people living during that time said it was a sad time to live in, but the prohibition did not stop drinking, in fact it seemed to toss oil on the fire, it only made it more rampant during those days, for anybody whos body chemistry depends on having another drink, i hope you can fight through somehow, i couldnt imagine being in that position, and then again you might be happy with your life, and really, thats what counts, just remember love is what keeps our world turning, because theres always someone out there willing to lend a helping hand, thats the way society should really work but it dont, we should lend a helping hand when we can, enough of this malarkey

 

[bryanpaul]

it's kind of sad to see kids who hit the road bright eyed and bushy-tailed with romantic aspirations of adventure and genuine LIVING.....and then a couple years later theyre bad alcoholics...then again that situation could happen in any subculture/walk of life........what got me out there i think was "purpose"........ at first, traveling around, the purpose was to see new places and have fun...."ok, let's go here"... "alright now let's go there".....but that gets old after so long...when the destination(or even the journey) becomes an end, rather than a means to something else.....so your traveling around and drinking all the time with no real purpose other than traveling around and drinking all the time and slowly but surely (for me) you become a bad alcoholic..........

 

[sideshowbxb]

well, hey that aint no prob, you should be happy about the life you live bro, the comments i made in that earlier passage seem kinda against alcoholics, but alcoholism actually runs in my family too, fortunately i havent had a keen appeal for the juice so im good right now, bryan, im sure theres things that make you happy in life bro, alot of good people ive meet have been alcoholics, to be honest, the only really scary crap is crackheads and crank, watch out there . . .

 

[RnJ]

Never been an alky before, but certainly felt the need to stop drinking altogether. Lately I've just been taking to lessening my support for what is at its root an oppressive industry, and drinking homemade wines/beer/liquers. If I ever do get drunk, I will have had to work and invest time into it--in the end, I only have about 10 bottles left right now before I'd have to make more...(it's freegan wine, and since I don't know where I'd find juice or enough fruit in the winter, I'm pretty conservative with it--maybe a bottle for every two week).

QUOTE:
"I know a disturbing amount of folks in radical communities who spend their entire income on alcohol and tobacco. People who shoplift from the local food coop because they don't want to pay for food will head down the street to the chain convenience store and pour the tiny bit of money that they do have into some of the most wicked fucking corporations in operation today. There seems to be an incredible blind spot around tobacco and booze with regards to ethical consumption; kids who'll demonstrate against Walmart or Exxon for their labor or environmental practices will then turn around and buy cigarettes and beer from stores that have devastatingly negative impacts on local communities and that were produced by companies that are central to everything that's awful about global capitalism."

I 200% agree.

 

[Yani]

Wow the above quote is awesome. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Earth]

Now that I'm on the wrong side of 45 (closing in on 47 fast) I can see where it robbed my life.
That's not to say I did not have a hell of a good time getting there, I just wish I stopped sooner rather than later - but in my case - later is better than never.....
Looking back, I had a lot of fun in W+E Berlin back in 81, and a real good time in NYC throughout the rest of the 80s...
But somewhere along the line, something went wrong.
I relaize it when I have guests stop by the studio and everything is in past tense, like my period for photography was from 81 to 89, music from 82 till maybe 92, then 95, 97-00, 01-03 then everything stopped - ironically once i got my 16 track 1" machine. I spent my whole life dreaming and scrounging everything needed to build a killer 1970's / early 80's type studio, and once the dream was achieved - I chose to booze it up instead...
Well, today I went to the secret refridgerator thats also a stand for my 1/2" 8 track and shut it off, while removing two gallons of wine.
For once I am focused, and ready to leave the past behind and get back to work musically.
Can't believe that something like a thread on STP would wake my sorry ass up, but it did............

Thanks to Gudj for starting this thread and everybody else who has posted comments here
I'm gonna have to see about sending Matt Pist some cash for this forum rules.
I would have never considered 'retiring; from the drinking life if I did not come back to STP
Hopefully, my art takes a firm hold on my life, just like it used too - before the drink took over.
And it will, as us Irish are a stubborn breed.
Just like I went vegetarian about twenty years ago, I was thinking about it for a long time - then once I was ready - I never looked back.............

 

[CardBoardBox]

I have serveral reasons for drinking.... Among youth i would say this is the easiest one... As a teen its somethin adults can do but they wont let you do it... so its readily avialible and a way of rebelling. As an adult its either because you got addicted at a younger age or its for a multitude of other reasons that are more specific to the user which being a social amplifier is probably a top contender for that. Aswell as just out of pure boredom. For me the top reason I drink is cause I have severe anxiety around large groups of people that makes me very unpleasent if not violent. Unfortunately this includes when I'm around my family, however when I come to the family reunion buzzed up they know why and they'd rather me be their drunk then their completely sober. Other times would be sleep related... this includes everything from bad weather, nightmares, or some type of physical pain... Alcohol is my drug of choice and I use it as such. Its the only strong pain killer I dont need a perscription for. Give me a 30 pack of keystone and about 2 -3 hours and ill sleep through a tornado(speaking from experience). I would like to say im not an alcoholic but I would say that would also depend on what a alcoholic is considered to be.. for me I think of someone that can't quit which I can stop any time I want. If I get in a place where im either alone or around very few people for a extended period I wont drink at all.

P.S ALSO lol because I'm the best DDD in Oklahoma, Funny when random people let me drive them home in their car when we're both drunk and I'm more drunk then them.

(sorry for the dark font, for some reason copy-and-paste does this to me)
Another quip taken from the zine I mentioned. If you highlight it it's a little easier to read...
Because of the prevalence of intoxication culture, shows and other events often cost more for young kids, or don't allow them in at all. The drinking age serves as a legal tool for enforcing segregation and discrimination directed towards young folks, setting up an entire system around consumption of alcohol that simultaneously devalues youth and glorifies intoxication, constructing it as mature" and advanced and all of the other positive traits associated with adulthood. As a result, among young people, the mystique of intoxication culture leads to semi- secretive consumption of alcohol and other drugs, often to a destructive degree. For kids around the ages of 18-22 or so, just before and after the drinking age, the ability to finally partake in the highly coveted "privilege" of intoxication culture leads to cults of hyper -intoxication, reinforcing the mystique even more. when the destructive consequences of getting fucked up manifest dramatically in young folks, such as deaths from binge drinking, clueless and patronizing adults 'wag their fingers and bemoan M peer pressure" as the cause, when it's blatantly fucking obvious that the causes lie in their own actions. The entirely adult- constructed mystique around intoxication, hypocritical and inconsistent policies promoting potentially fatal intoxicants while violently suppressing less harmful ones, and the oppression and devaluing of young people in general frequently lead to the desire to emulate the that the reason for this is because it was a central demand of the women involved in discussion about the new society they were building.

 

[Kim Chee]

I enjoy drinking sometimes, not that I need to but it does stave off boredom. I used to make my own wine (I had a nice hobbyist setup when I was housed up). Didn't use bread yeast, got the nice stuff from the wine shop. Made some pretty good wines with fruit I picked (wild free stuff and cultivated fruits). Great results, enjoyable buzz, awesome gifts and I didn't think the slightest bit of entering a store to purchase alcohol.
Awesome hobby if you don't let it consume you.

 

[river dog]

try reading some ernest hemmingway for some ole timey insight into boozing and traveling, especially 'the sun also rises' but really most of his stories will do

 

[Acorn]

I agree with alot of what is being said here, and disagree with some to a point. I couldn't tell you why exactly people who live this lifestyle feel the need to, or choose to drink, I couldn't even explain it to myself. I used to drink alot. I'd wake up in the morning and first thing, go find a way to get booze..didn't care what it was. My mission for the day was to acquire enough booze and smokes to last till the next day, every day. Sometimes the only thing that kept me stuck in a town for longer than I wanted to be there was the lack of booze for the walk to the yard and/or train ride out. Sometimes it was the abundance of booze that kept me there. I loved drinking. I loved it for alot of reasons, some of them already being mentioned. Yer broke and its a cheap thrill, sometimes it seems like there's nothing better to do, it feels almost as if you have to drink to fit in sometimes, it helps you sleep in cold or uncomfortable places, its cheap entertainment, it'll help you make that 5 mile trudge to wherever yer headed that night/day(or make you pass out on the way and not care), it helps you feel comfortable around strangers and other kids you just met, it helps you meet other kids- say you just got to a town you've never been to before and you don't know anybody, ..find another kid or group of kids trying to drink and pitch in on it. now you've not only got yer booze but people to hang out and converse with. Ive met so many of my friends in similar situations, friends I still talk to and keep in touch with today. I'm a pretty shy and quiet person when I'm not drinking or already drunk so I guess drinking, for me helped me open up and not feel so uncomfortable around people all the time. I don't know, after a while it just became a normal everyday thing, I actually thought it odd when I met travelers that didn't drink....

 

[Acorn]

Jeeze, I didn't realize this thread was so long... This website is confusing nowadays