In this essay I will talk about how American society glorifies the consumption of alcohol. I will also talk about the causes and effects that alcohol has on the body, and the life of the user. American society glorfies alcohol on T. V. , radio, billboards, movies, and any other form of entertainment. I will talk also about American society targeting tabacco, but not alcohol. Alcoholism is also a huge problem in American society. American society glorifies alcohol in many ways. If you watch T. V. at all today you will at least see one alcohol advertisement.
Alcohol also has funny, cartoon like characters, to sell their product like the Budwieser frogs. When tabacco companies did this they got much ridicule for their character Joe Camel. Saying that it targets children. However the alcohol companies do this and no one says anything. Alcohol, to some people, is more dangerous then tabacco. It can cause liver damage, and can dissable your ability to operate machines, like cars. Alcohol is the number one cause of car accidents in America. People can also get addicted to alcohol, like tabacco. People who are addicted to alcohol are called alcoholics.
There are many places alcoholics can go to help their addiction, like support groups, meetings, and classes. Some other ways American society glorifies alcohol use are: advertising, social settings, sporting events, and initiations. By social settings I mean parties. It is automatically assumed if you go to a party as an adult, that alcohol should be involved. Alcohol is also used for celebrations. It is tradition in American society on New Years to drink alcohol. American society also incourages the drinking of alcohol at sporting events.
If you see any sporting event on T. V. ymore you will probably see an alcohol ad. Along with this alcohol is sold at most sporting events. Athletes, we would believe, would want to stay away from alcohol, because of the damage it does to the body. However it is still served at sporting events. American society also glorifies alcohol by initiations. This example is most seen on collage gorunds. To get into a frerturnity, most of the initiations involve drinking a large amount of alcohol. From this peer pressure, most collage students do the drinking required to get in. Some of them even drink so much that they die.
American society again incourages drinking alcohol by simply making it leagal. If you are over twenty-one years of age, in this country, you can drink leagally. In other countries, where they don’t have a drinking age, they don’t have as many alcohol related problems as our country does. That has posed the question, why do we have a drinking age then? Besides that, America tried to make alcohol illeagal in the 1920’s and 1930’s. That idea didn’t work because it lead to the organization of organized crime. After that America made alcohol leagal again, and it’s been that way ever since.
Some of the causes of American society glorifying alcohol are: peer pressure, depression, addiction, and etertainment. By peer pressure I mean people who other people think are their friends get them to drink by pressuring them. This is something that has been going on for years. This is also the reason why people drink so much for initiations. Their peers pressure them into drinking. American society also glorifies alcohol use through depression. Many Americans think they can drink to solve their problems, however the drinking usually creates more problems. This type of drinking usually is what creates alcoholics.
Alcoholics are people who are addicted to alcohol. This type of drinking also leads to things like: more depression, domestic violence, broken homes, and DWI. When people drink because of depression or for entertainment, they useually get addicted. When I say people drink for entertainment, I mean people drink because they think there’s nothing else to do. These people useually become alcoholics. If alcoholics don’t get help, they can become violent. They can beat their family, pets, and friends. Some of the effects of alcohol are: dissase, domestic violence, death, broken homes, medical insurance, addiction and treatment, and crime.
By dissase I mean liver cancer you can get from drinking alcohol. By domestic violence I mean violence in the home caused by the drinking. By death I mean death by things like: DWI, alcoholism, and liver cancer. By broken homes I mean families getting broken up by on of the family members drinking. By medical insurance I mean you have to pay for all your medical bills that the drinking causes. By addiction and treatment I mean you can get addicted and then you have to go through treatment to lose your addiction. By crime I mean people getting drunk and committing crimes.
Some of the crimes are: assult, battery, DWI, DUI, vehicular homicide, and burglary just to name a few. Drinking can cause serious problems. In conclusion American society glorifies some bad things. However, the worse thing we glorify is the consumption of alcohol. Alcohol consumption is very deadly, if misused. American society has tried to stop alcohol in the past, but it didn’t work. In other countries they don’t have a drinking age and they don’t have half the problems we do with alcohol consumption. Maybee we should change our ways, or maybee not.
