This is just my experience, but I've noticed people have cut it down in the Arab world and the UK, too. It's a phenomenon I ascribe partly to people becoming over-numbed and deciding prioritising...well, actual living. I also suspect that social media is slowly going the same way.
Great essay, as always. Wish I had more to contribute than stray and disconnected thoughts.
I believe I have the answer to this. It has mostly to do with the nature of work. For simplicity let's look at work as defined by what males have contributed to society throughout history (calm down everyone; like I said, it's for simplicity).
For the majority of human history male work has been physical labour. There were a very small percentage of men who acted as the brains of the operation with the remainder acting as the limbs. Take for example building a bridge. One head engineer, some skilled foreman, and a boat load of labourers who may or may not have been slaves depending on time and place. Most of the work was just: 1) show up, 2) lift/move/hit/place objects as directed, 3) go home. Complex understanding wasn’t really part of the process.
Small personal anecdote. At 17 I got my first summer job as a labourer in a stone quarry. My job was to take a hammer and chisel, split apart giant limestone obelisks, and pile the resultant slabs. It was the most physically demand thing I have ever done in my life and the first 2 weeks I would cry every morning from the pain of the previous day. By the end of the summer though I was able to stay up drinking until 1 am any night of the week, wake up at 5 am, be at work for 6:30, and work all day as if I was just hanging out working on my tan and being paid to essentially work out all day. Wow, rereading that I feel as if I was living some primitive untelevised version of Jersey Shore or something..
Fast forward past university and into real working life. In my 30s as an electrical/mechanical technician I found I drank much, much less simply due to how it would affect my ability to do my work. You cannot effectively trouble shoot complex electro-mechanical systems running on ¼ faculties.
Now, at 42, as I’m studying electrical engineering, I find there’s simply no time to spend on the drunk/hung over/recover cycle. It’s essentially impossible to learn and implement triple integral calculus applied to a 3 dimensional flux density equation while alcohol is having any effect on you. If I drink now, it’s in extreme moderation only as a small treat in between semesters.
As society progress technologically our work is less and less physical and more and more intellectually complex. Alcohol just doesn’t have much of a place in that kind of world. Other drugs do (as you’ve pointed out), but the days of daily depressant indulgence are on their way out.
We'll see what happens. Something I deliberately left out were the possible effects of the Brazilianization that may or may not be in the United States' future. A gigantic underclass wracked by educational disparities, an unbreachable wealth gap, and chronic un-/underemployment may be more apt to hit the bottle instead of the pipe.
Among the more secure classes and those hopeful & proactive sections of the precariat whose members want to make damn sure they can get to work the next day and don't want to squander their leisure time, we can expect to see less boozing. It remains to be seen how they number in proportion to the people who either fall off the ladder and see no hope of climbing back on, or are born with the lowest rung totally out of their reach. (But Brazilianization isn't a sure thing, however probable it may often seem.)
This is just my experience, but I've noticed people have cut it down in the Arab world and the UK, too. It's a phenomenon I ascribe partly to people becoming over-numbed and deciding prioritising...well, actual living. I also suspect that social media is slowly going the same way.
Great essay, as always. Wish I had more to contribute than stray and disconnected thoughts.
The prioritization of life over simulated life is a beautiful thing to hope for, but I'll believe it when I see Meta's stock in a downward spiral.
I believe I have the answer to this. It has mostly to do with the nature of work. For simplicity let's look at work as defined by what males have contributed to society throughout history (calm down everyone; like I said, it's for simplicity).
For the majority of human history male work has been physical labour. There were a very small percentage of men who acted as the brains of the operation with the remainder acting as the limbs. Take for example building a bridge. One head engineer, some skilled foreman, and a boat load of labourers who may or may not have been slaves depending on time and place. Most of the work was just: 1) show up, 2) lift/move/hit/place objects as directed, 3) go home. Complex understanding wasn’t really part of the process.
Small personal anecdote. At 17 I got my first summer job as a labourer in a stone quarry. My job was to take a hammer and chisel, split apart giant limestone obelisks, and pile the resultant slabs. It was the most physically demand thing I have ever done in my life and the first 2 weeks I would cry every morning from the pain of the previous day. By the end of the summer though I was able to stay up drinking until 1 am any night of the week, wake up at 5 am, be at work for 6:30, and work all day as if I was just hanging out working on my tan and being paid to essentially work out all day. Wow, rereading that I feel as if I was living some primitive untelevised version of Jersey Shore or something..
Fast forward past university and into real working life. In my 30s as an electrical/mechanical technician I found I drank much, much less simply due to how it would affect my ability to do my work. You cannot effectively trouble shoot complex electro-mechanical systems running on ¼ faculties.
Now, at 42, as I’m studying electrical engineering, I find there’s simply no time to spend on the drunk/hung over/recover cycle. It’s essentially impossible to learn and implement triple integral calculus applied to a 3 dimensional flux density equation while alcohol is having any effect on you. If I drink now, it’s in extreme moderation only as a small treat in between semesters.
As society progress technologically our work is less and less physical and more and more intellectually complex. Alcohol just doesn’t have much of a place in that kind of world. Other drugs do (as you’ve pointed out), but the days of daily depressant indulgence are on their way out.
We'll see what happens. Something I deliberately left out were the possible effects of the Brazilianization that may or may not be in the United States' future. A gigantic underclass wracked by educational disparities, an unbreachable wealth gap, and chronic un-/underemployment may be more apt to hit the bottle instead of the pipe.
Among the more secure classes and those hopeful & proactive sections of the precariat whose members want to make damn sure they can get to work the next day and don't want to squander their leisure time, we can expect to see less boozing. It remains to be seen how they number in proportion to the people who either fall off the ladder and see no hope of climbing back on, or are born with the lowest rung totally out of their reach. (But Brazilianization isn't a sure thing, however probable it may often seem.)
Nice. Now I can reframe my fears of making Stardew Valley mods as a facet of my social angsiety. :P