Drink it because you like it, not because you feel you have to because your friends are drinking, or because you want to get hammered. I must confess that I'm guilty of having done the latter. There have been times when I've had a particularly bad day that I've needed to take the edge off. But there is no way in hell I would drink just because everyone else does it. I don't care if I look like a square or not. If people perceive me as boring just because I'm not drinking, well that really says more about them then it does about me. People have started placing too much emphasis on alcohol. It goes both ways too. The non-drinkers place too much emphasis on it and claim that it's bad and the drinkers place to much emphasis on it by thinking that you can't really have a good time without drinking. The latter is especially true in Sweden. A party isn't a party unless you get hammered in Sweden. There are exceptions to this of course, but in general, the drinking culture is almost hysterical. It becomes like a clear, hard goal to get drunk before you go out. A mission. I have had the dubious pleasure to attend a few Swedish so-called "pre-parties", and although I'm not exactly a teetotaller myself, I was astonished by the amounts of alcohol that gets consumed at this affairs. The goal - to get sufficiently drunk before everyone goes out to a club. The reason - it's too expensive to buy booze at a club, and besides you're not really having a good time unless you're drunk. Everyone else is doing it, so that means you have to as well.
The drinking culture is a little bit more laid-back in Canada. I rarely ever see people as drunk there as I do in Sweden, and even when Canadians are drunk they handle it better. The pressure to drink is still there though, which I think is silly. Why does it have to be such a huge deal?
The same goes the other way around. It's one thing if you don't like the taste of alcohol, but to abstain from it completely because you feel it's evil in some way is silly too. Alcohol is a drug, and consumed in excess it's dangerous and in some cases lethal, but come on...drinking because you like the taste of it isn't bad. And people who drink aren't morally depraved creatures who are going to hell for their sins. If I want to have a glass of wine or beer because I like it I'm going to have it, and I don't really care if or who else at the table shares my choice in beverage. Drink if you want to, and if you don't I couldn't care less.
Maybe the solution to everyone's problem is to simply put less emphasis on alcohol all around. The people who rabidly binge drink should stop looking at booze as the magic quick fix to a good time, and alcohol shouldn't automatically be included in a Saturday night of fun with friends. As a result of this, the teetotallers of the world might stop looking at alcohol as the downfall of man.
Everyone just chill out. It's just a beverage. It just so happens that we have to consume it with a little more care than we do milk or coke.
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