Dalrymple at his Hilarious Pessimist blog (h/t Teddy Msigwa):
Britain is the only country known to me in which drunkenness is an ideology: that is to say in which people believe in an abstract way that, in getting drunk, they are doing good to themselves and performing an almost philanthropic service. The mass public drunkenness that appals foreigners when they come to our shores is actually thought by young drunks to be a form individual therapy and social prophylaxis rolled into one.
Read the rest here
Japan is another place where drunkenness is(was) rampant. That was by middle class corporate men, still in their suits and ties from the office. (I haven’t kept up to date on the subject.) It was considered that people work so hard and work long hours in a heirarchical environment and are under so much pressure that it was one way for them to get out from the pressure. Maybe it is something to do with living on an island. However alcohol and Russia are linked and they blame it on the long winter. The self-description by the misguided girl was very sad. Where are/were the parents to give her guidance? The Native Americans used to blame drunkenness on their genes and having been introduced to liquor late. Maybe it had/has to do with losing one’s nation, prospects.