Is the European attitude towards alcohol better than the Americans'?

[CriticalMiss]

To be fair, if they are going clubbing as opposed to a pub, I can see why pre drinks would be done. Clubbing is pretty much impossible to enjoy sober, and the drinks in clubs are extortionate, so it's understandable why people would get drunk beforehand so that they don't need to buy anything when they are out.

But if you need to be drunk to enjoy something, why do it at all?

 

[Khanht Cope]

Even if a fully reliable study would conclude that France does consume a lot in total; it would likely mean it's because it would be amoung larger demographics with regular but not excessive drinking habits; and not necessarily that they have a bigger problem with morbid binge drinking than other countries more reputable for binge drinking.

The problem with binge drinking cultures is not the notion that "drinking is cool", it's the notion that "getting drunk is cool". And that's something the asinine "forbidden fruit" debate doesn't really get at.

Almost 10 years ago now, the UK government stupidly followed these tired lines of rhetoric about European drinking and started opening it up, relaxing laws and so on in the expectation that a nation of binge drinkers would magically transform into a wine-sipping café culture, and the problem only got worse.

The restriction/temptation discourse pales in significance next to cultural attitudes and social reinforcement.

To be fair, if they are going clubbing as opposed to a pub, I can see why pre drinks would be done. Clubbing is pretty much impossible to enjoy sober, and the drinks in clubs are extortionate, so it's understandable why people would get drunk beforehand so that they don't need to buy anything when they are out.

As someone who always went clubbing sober, (and despite being someone who generally finds drunkenness unpleasant) I disagree with that. The music sucks, but at least you can dance in public without looking insane. Dancing the way I do with any alcohol in my system would basically wreck me.

 

[OneCatch]

I spent some time in Italy, and as an American, living in a town that has a $250 open container ticket law, was amazing that I could buy alcohol from streetcarts and drink it in the middle of the day walking down the street.

Something I noticed about my time in Europe: people drank all day; every restaurant I went to went out of their way to serve us alcohol, but at the same time, I never ran into drunk assholes. In an American city at 1:00 A.M., you can hear the drunk dicks shouting rude things at passing women, but I despite drinking all day, I didn't seem to see this in Rome.

From my impressions, it seems like alcohol in Europe is more ever-present (I was traveling with a Muslim who didn't drink, and the Italian waiters didn't seem to accept that, and brought him alcohol-laced drinks anyways - I would hate to be an addict and have to deal with that while traveling) but at the same time it's far more moderated and mentally healthy. Americans binge-drink, Europeans are more constant and moderate.

I know this forum has both Americans and Europeans, so I would love to hear what you all think about the Alcohol attitudes between the two continents.

I think that restrained attitude is more Mediterranean and Southern European.
Here in the UK we have our fair share of drunken idiots [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ApXlK2-X_Q], to the extent where the Police recently suggested having 'drunk tanks' to put the drunk and disorderly/incapable in to sober up instead of them filling up police cells. They'd then be charged for the expense of it the morning after, rather than the police having to pay for it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24135219

And I've heard from friends that Scandinavia and Eastern Europe carouse roughly as much as us.

But yeah, from personal experience Italy in particular seems to be a lot more responsible with alcohol even though it's a lot more prevalent, and it's the same in Southern France and Greece as well.

 

[loc978]

Having been stationed in Germany and visited Italy, I can say definitively that a culturally shaming approach to controlling alcohol abuse works better than a litigious approach. In 3 years I never met a German who didn't drink, but I also never met a German I would consider a drunk.

Could use a little clearer labeling on the ice cream carts, though... some sundaes have a few shots of amaretto in 'em. It was mildly embarrassing, smelling like a girly liqueur in uniform... still, rather tasty.