tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post7000055529517818678..comments2023-09-20T12:50:40.208+01:00Comments on Pete Brown: Answering the neo-prohibitionists 7 of 10: “The best way to reduce the harmful effects of alcohol is to reduce overall consumption”Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03011702209832734676noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-10951125523557212762010-01-19T20:38:16.802+00:002010-01-19T20:38:16.802+00:00Interesting one. I think comparing behaviour and l...Interesting one. I think comparing behaviour and laws in different countries is not so easy. Some countries do not have a culture of drinking to excess and people getting shitfaced and acting like idiots (ie as the UK and, I think to a lesser extent, Australia does). These countries also tend to have lesser restrictions on alcohol. <br /><br />However, I suspect that the culture is not due to the restrictions, but rather the other way around. <br /><br />The real question is how to change a culture of getting shitfaced and violent as a habit to one of enjoying alcohol as part of a life well lived. <br /><br />I don't think laws do it. One idea, which I don't think has been proposed before, is that this is part of a broader problem of people in the UK (and Australia) not having a sophisticated food culture. What, you say??<br /><br />Well think about all the people you know who like cooking a good meal for their friends and family, who think about what it is they eat before they put it in their mouths. How do they drink? Chances are they think about their alcohol in the same way they think about their food. I dare say almost none of the yobs think about their grog. Once you start thinking about it, having 10 pints of stellar seems a little, well pointless (as you said to me once). <br /><br />So introduce cooking into primary and high school and treat it as seriously as English. Educate the average pommy or aussie so he thinks about food as much as a frenchman or Italian does. <br /><br />I bet you'd see idiot drinking fall over time if you did this.Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15851359583633808001noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-89325485141880702792010-01-14T15:39:11.053+00:002010-01-14T15:39:11.053+00:00Pete, this continues to be a fantastic series. I&#...Pete, this continues to be a fantastic series. I'm even thinking about incorporating it into an assignment for my students on critical thinking--something we may be even more lacking here in the States.<br /><br />I do, however, have a geographer's nit to pick. While reasonably called one of the "Nordic" countries, Finland is decidedly <i>not</i> "Scandinavian". The Finns, of course, are tied through language to their Baltic neighbors in Estonia, and are in fact closer cultural cousins to relatively distant Hungarians than to their neighbors in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. This doesn't invalidate your argument, but we might as well use the correct geographic terminology.California Petehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00637419302696764492noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-29267587495133654532010-01-14T14:23:17.900+00:002010-01-14T14:23:17.900+00:00The extreme of the Scandinavian illustration is Ic...The extreme of the Scandinavian illustration is Iceland, which only legalized beer in 1989 and still has a national spirit (Brennivin) nicknamed "Black Death" for the mandated skull illustration - to indicate how dangerous it is! -- that once adorned its label. Prohibition and restriction don't get much stronger, yet when I visited the capital I found a population entirely ill-equipped to drink responsibly. You think SoHo is bad on a Saturday night, you should see Reykjavik!Stephen Beaumonthttp://worldofbeer.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-68974974606700614162010-01-14T13:41:48.972+00:002010-01-14T13:41:48.972+00:00The figures from the scaniavian countries; do you ...The figures from the scaniavian countries; do you have charts? Figures? For that matter any other examples of countries where this can be shown?<br /><br />I'm not doubting you are right, but others might.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11319272987951077205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30743480.post-36891301618392758522010-01-14T11:10:09.393+00:002010-01-14T11:10:09.393+00:00Another excellent blog post, Pete. You write in a ...Another excellent blog post, Pete. You write in a clear, analytical style which demolishes the twisted propaganda of those who think they have the right to tell us how we should behave. If only the wider press would report the scare-mongering neo-prohibitionist press releases in the critical, right-thinking way as you do. Keep up the good work!David Strangehttp://elitistreview.comnoreply@blogger.com