What Do DU'ers Think About Drinking Contests? Freedom Or Gluttony?

[KittyWampus]

of course, every year some college kid seems to end up dead from one of those drinking contests. So maybe the choices should be: freedom, gluttony or sheer stupidity.

Why is binge drinking acceptable to the point of being "cool"?

Is there a difference between a drinking contest and an eating contest other than the fact that eating contests are considered grotesque and can't kill you?

Why has western society almost completely ignored the innate human need to have rites of passages and holidays to celebrate the turning seasons?

Why is it the process of growing into an adult has precious few healthy rituals involved except those associated with Religion (Confirmation/Bat Mitzvah)?

Can a secular society provide such rituals that are necessary for a human's emotional health and maturation?

[Ron Green]

1. "Hey, if one of these is good, then fifteen must be GREAT."

[pitohui]

5. "the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom" --blake

the truth is that not everyone will ever be wise, not everyone has the intellectual and emotional capacity for wisdom no matter their experience, but the person who never lives to excess not even for a moment will never be wise either

you do not become mature w.out risk

no, i don't advocate drinking games, i don't advocate doing anything stupid at any time ever

and yet if i had never done anything at any time stupid ever...i would not have lived, i would not have shared our common humanity and known the human experience

[Ron Green]

7. Y'know, I was just reminded of that once again at yesterday's dinner.

[pitohui]

2. because we label normal healthy activity as unhealthy

Why is it the process of growing into an adult has precious few healthy rituals involved except those associated with Religion (Confirmation/Bat Mitzvah)?

of course the classic ritual of becoming an adult is the magical process of losing one's virginity and exploring one's sexuality, as we have chosen to view this process as something dirty, evil, and harmful for the maturing teen, then of course we only see tedious and boring religious rituals as something "healthy"

i don't blame the kids for drinking when they are taught their natural hormonal drives and the resulting experiences are filthy and dirty

let's be real, confirmation was a bore, my friend's bat matzvah is a bore, it's nice that adults wants to share in the process of the teen becoming an adult but, in the end, you become an adult in the dark and not on a religious stage

adults are into control, our society is into control, so we can't handle that

so we cripple our teens and then wonder why a few don't survive

[KittyWampus]

4. Excellent post! Touches on the generational divide issue too...

the extent that children, teenagers and adults are percieved as having different lifestyles is a fairly modern invention.

It goes much further then the obvious differences in generational responsibilites.

[DS1]

3. The only 'contest' I ever won was a keg-standing competition

on a beach. It just meant I could deal with foaming beer going upside down :shrug: - Still, it was just beer, and beer will tend to make you pass out long before you've ingested a lethal amount - like say slamming an entire 5th of J. Daniels. That's just stupid. It's why I think the drinking age of 21, and social stigma around it are dumb. In societies where people are more accepting of alcohol, you don't have this problem of x percent of kids dying at college on their first night of unsupervised consumption.

[KittyWampus]

6. My family had a popular public bar in the main house on our property when

I was growing up.

Perhaps that's why I never really gave a fig for drinking... it was never 'taboo'.

[Missy Vixen]

18. I've been an interested observer to our friends' teenagers

over the years. The kids who had the least problem with alcohol were introduced to it at home as no big deal -- i.e., they were allowed to have a glass of wine with their parents at the dinner table from the time they were about 16. It worked for that set of parents, I'm not sure what others would do.

I came out of the church world. Alcohol was considered sinful. Consequently, I didn't have my first alcoholic drink till I was 23. I'm still not much of a drinker. DH partied a lot as an older teen and in college. There is nothing now that's worth that hangover :eyes:.

Julie

[donsu]

8. sheer stupidity

nt

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. Purely stupid. Nothing but bad stuff from this behavior..

A close friend lost his boy to this nonsense at MIT.

Of course the family got a 6 mil settlement................

[GrpCaptMandrake]

11. Without the particulars in the instant case

we can't know, but it's been my experience that most "hazing" deaths related to ETOH involve compulsory drinking, which is significantly different from drinking "games."

Compulsory drinking, to-wit: "drink all this or you can't be in the club" is lethal. Much less so the gang of bored freshmen sitting aroung playing quarter-bounce with the cheapest beer they can get their hands on, or "Fuzzy Duck" with a pitcher of margaritas or vodka gimlets (vodka and lime kool-aid, usually).

Assuming the "gamers" stay out from behind the wheel, their conduct is usually fairly innocuous, although, as noted by a poster above, it has been known to result in nastyfiltydirtyevil SEX.

I also concur in the sentiments regarding the legal drinking age. It offends me mightily that recruiters can stalk poor inner city and rural high schools for fresh meat for the Iraqi Grinder, but the kids they snare can't, should they so choose, quench their thirst with a beer before dying for Bush and Country.

Finally, a less fetishistic, puritanical approach to ETOH and the punishment of crimes resulting therefrom might well contribute to a reduction in our national drinking "problem."

[Mika]

10. Drinking contests go well after eating 10 lbs of turkey or 80 hotdogs.

Having an overstreched gut, swollen liver, and puke on your t-shirt is really really cool.

:sarcasm:

[OneBlueSky]

12. um . . . the word "stupidity" comes immediately to mind . . . n/t

.

[shadowknows69]

13. I had a drinking contest with myself last night

I lost. Ow my head. Will someone please turn the sun down.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

14. This is why we have gangs

because they meet the human need for ritual, group cooperation and also maturity rites.

Boy Scout doesn't quite cut it. Confirmation and Bah Mitzvah are too early and are largely ceremonial with no follow up.

I vote for public service at 18. However, that said, I wouldn't want the current administration deciding just what constitutes "public service."

[Occulus]

15. If we were to legalize pot

the two would be combined at such events and the people involved would likely pass out looooong before they were in any danger of alcohol poisoning.

I'm just sayin'.

[meganmonkey]

16. Ever play ZONK?

It's a pot-smoking game with dice. I played it a lot in college.

Everybody wins, and the one with the most points usually passes out on the couch :smoke:

[SOteric]

17. In point of fact, you ~can~ die from eating too much in a short span.

It causes your stomach to distend and strangle your heart and lungs, two somewhat vital organs.

With regard to your question, it's both freedom and gluttony. They're not mutually exclusive. However it's also self-destructive and I'm all for better ways of discouraging the behaviour. I just don't know any. Making a thing illegal only seems to make it more desireable to the young, impressionable sorts most likely to engage in these pastimes to begin with.

[JVS]

19. Binge drinking is acceptable to the point of being cool because...

getting drunk is fun.

Kids end up dead from it because they don't know their limits or they choose to ignore what they do know. As Icarus did, they fly too close to the sun and are destroyed.