Observations on Americans, Part ... 4?

[tealin]

Americans cannot hold their liquor.

Going out for drinks and having a selection of alcoholic drinks available at social gatherings is a standard part of life in Canada, so I thought I was familiar with its effect on people. But HOLY CRAP. I went to a party last night and was one of the first people there, so I got to see most everyone come in, and they went from jolly sober to smashed drunk in about fifteen minutes, apparently on wimpy American beer.* I am used to comrades downing six or seven pints and a couple of shooters still being able to walk straight and hold a decent conversation, but after what could only have been two or three bottles these people were finding stairs a challenge. There were some people who by the end of the evening had the cognitive powers of a slow five-year-old. How can this be? Is it because the higher drinking age prevents gaining a tolerance of the stuff in developing years? Do you seriously expect me to believe none of these people drank before they were 21?

And then this morning I was auditory witness to one of our new downstairs neighbours making comically exaggerated offerings to the porcelain throne. Lovely.

At any rate, I can understand, now, the attitudes towards alcohol of some of my more puritanical acquaintances, if this is the sort of context they have.

*American beer is 4% alcohol, as opposed to 7% in Canada and, what, 73% in Europe?

Comments

[last-archangel.livejournal.com]

Most of the people in our parents' generation were spoiled rotten by the post-World War II mentality of untouchable-ness. It got to the point where it became "we're Americans, we can do whatever the hell we want!", which has led to a complete decline in the sense of responsibility and the work ethic which built this nation in the first place. And there's another reason, much as I hate to sound like a "traditionalist", but a lot of that mores was based upon God-fear - people stopped going to church and temple - and that changed everything, too. Finally, the American family structure is in decline, and not because of homosexuality, but because of the fact that more than half the children are not being raised by their fathers. Boys never learn to be men, women become hypersexualized in their quest to fill that gap created when their fathers left, and we're all left with a society where children aren't being raised by anyone at all, but left in a room with a TV and a box of frozen fishsticks and made to fend for themselves.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Gosh. How jolly.

[mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com]

Also, even if one's parents are pragmatic and hard-working, one can still miss out on emotional connexion. Though in my case, that's done some good--only because I've become the sort of fellow that learns what not to do easier than what to do.

Still, I know so many people in my generation--at least, the ones planning to raise kids (I include teachers in this statement)--that are good people. It's heartening. :)