Getting Drunk
- Alcohol and drugs had an evolutionary value: they helped humans survive when the living conditions were terrible.
- Alcohol and drugs were popular in agricultural and industrial societies because they gave strength to men who had to endure physically-demanding work and risk death in war.
- The persistent appeal of alcohol and drugs in post-industrial societies is puzzling because very few men have physically demanding jobs or go to war, and even fewer women (who now account for a significant share of alcohol and drug users).
- Alcohol and drugs in post-industrial societies must serve another purpose that has more likely to do with the way we distorted human life, from school to office and to retirement (all very unnatural things to do).
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