The longer I am a member of this forum, the more I realise what a vast difference in perspective exists between the US and Europe, in many areas, but, most recently, here, expressed by a strikingly different approach to alcohol. In some ways, it seems to be yet another version of the old idea of two cultures divided by a common language, or maybe, the Atlantic ocean, or perhaps, some weird, warped distortion of a mutual history.
The OP posted an interesting thread, where that actual original post itself fleshed out a title that seemed to unsettle some US respondents.
To be honest, I doubt that I would meet many Europeans, myself included, who didn't enjoy - or, even savour - the liberating pleasure of disburdening oneself of the inhibitions socialisation has instilled in us, a process, which alcohol consumed to some slight degree of excess can sometimes afford us, along with the sheer primitive pleasure of drinking too much on occasion, especially (and here, I do nurse some rather fond, and occasionally embarrassing, not to mention downright stupid, memories) when one was a student.
Indeed, for Europeans, this is not a guilty or furtive matter. Rather, it is something we mostly admit that we enjoyed, and certainly, I'll readily admit to having enjoyed the primitive pleasure of drinking to excess as a student. Age, and employment, between them, (and sometimes, finding oneself a guardian of a new family) usually take care of the frequency of excessive encounters with alcohol. Work requires a degree of sobriety that the student life does not.
Indeed, I remember waking on a Saturday morning many, many years ago, slowly opening an eye, and contemplating the state of my head, only to realise that I didn't have a hangover, for the very good reason that I had not been out socialising on the night before. My next recollection is the shattering relief the realisation this revelation brought with it. And my very next thought was a rueful acknowledgement that the relief of waking up, unhungover, was a considerably better place to be than the alternative. It is called, ageing, or growing up, or growing old[er], and perhaps (a debatable one, this) more mature, too.
Nevertheless, the unsettling truth is that getting cheerfully plastered in good company when relaxed is jolly good fun, and some of the best evenings of my youth were spent in this manner. It wasn't all Mozart and books, and angst, you know.
Now, reading this thread, I must confess to feeling a slight degree of amusement at the disapproving tone towards the OP and his post, when what I read was a desire to share the pleasure of student style high spirits fuelled by an alcohol intake, rather than a rhetorical question seeking a response as to whether or not he was (or is) a raving alcoholic.
And then, I remind myself, that uniquely in the western world (though not, alas, in parts of the Muslim universe), the US actually had the ignoble privilege of having enacted and enforced a ban against the production, sale and consumption of alcohol. Not, by a long way, the most enlightened or impressive piece of legislation to wind its merry way through the Houses of Congress, I would respectfully submit. Prohibition did more damage than good to the US, but it has also left a lingering legacy of - almost Puritanical - disapproval when and where the subject matter of alcohol is discussed. This is something which mystifies us Across the Pond, because sipping a glass or two of good wine (or beer, or cognac, or even whiskey) with friends is one of life's great pleasures. And, if while thus happily engaged, one starts slurring vowels, and mangling consonants, and repeating oneself at tedious length (because you know, deep down, that your interlocutor has inexplicably failed to grasp the point you have tried to make at least six times), well, that is part of life's rich fabric, along with the nights of crying with laughter in good company.....
