Camille Paglia: The Drinking Age Is Past Its Prime

NewsOK.com ^ | April 24, 2014 | Camille Paglia

[Biggirl]

The age 21 rule sets the United States apart from all advanced Western nations, and it has pushed kids toward pills and other anti-social behavior.

[Chickensoup]

Married at 16

Could not buy ETOH until 18 in the first state we lived

Could not buy ETOH until 21 in the second state we lived

Had a mortgage, car payments and full family and work responsibilities at 18.

[Chickensoup]

My kids drank at home under my supervision at every celebratory event from the age of 12 or so. They had wine/water mix at the table at celebratory events from the time they could hold a wine glass. If the teens wanted to try a specific beer or spirit I would purchase it and we would sample.

It demystified alcohol and helped them integrate ETOH use into their lives.

I remember my son telling me that he sort of laughed up his sleeve at his friends who would get a bottle of ETHOH and drink it and treat it like contraband. He said: I know that I can come home and ask for a drink if I wanted it and I would get it. I am so much freer than they are.

[Tax-chick]

Our babies (and an occasional pet) have always liked a bit of wine.

[MisterArtery]

Well, the Feds didn’t dictate. They just told the states that if they didn’t up the age, highway funds would be denied. It was blackmail.

[miss marmelstein]

Heavy boozing may be Anglo-Saxon culture. Certainly Mediterranean people don't overinduldge. Of course, then there are the Russians...

[dfwgator]

Russians are lightweights, compared to Poles.

[miss marmelstein]

Really! Oh, well, that cold weather...

[dfwgator]

As they say, Don’t spit in the wind, don’t tug on Superman’s cape, and don’t get into a drinking contest with a Pole.

[Daveinyork]

OK, where in the constitution does it authorize the federal government to provide the states with highway funds?

[Night Hides Not]

When I turned 18, my parents had no problem with me grabbing a beer from the fridge.

I allow my 12 YO son a sip or two of new wines or brews I bring into the house...under my supervision of course. Thanks to a wine & viticulture class I'm taking for fun this semester, I've been bringing home a bottle or two every couple of weeks.

He's seen the problems created by his older siblings when they've had too much to drink, so I think he'll be more responsible when he's older.

My attitude towards the drinking age is simple: if you can enlist in the Army at 18, you should be able to have an adult beverage in public.

The current laws contribute to the prolonged adolescence of young adults today.

[Chickensoup]

Our babies (and an occasional pet) have always liked a bit of wine.

______________

Our babies (and an occasional pet) have often indulged in a bit of whine.

[Tax-chick]

Oh, that too, and also screaming fits.

[Bigg Red]

The current laws contribute to the prolonged adolescence of young adults today.

**
I agree. And I am convinced that the prohibition on buying cigarettes under the age of 18 was deliberately put into place to encourage teen smoking as an act of rebellion and was done at the instigation of the tobacco companies.

I have no proof, and I can cite no data, but it really seems to have followed this pattern. Around the time that those laws were passed, smoking had become socially unacceptable, and teens were not picking up the habit. Cigarette manufacturers were in danger of losing customers. Then came the prohibition, and teen smoking numbers increased.

[ctdonath2]

Maybe for those who do not know how to stop after one or two. Those who know where to stop do get good out of it.

[houeto]

I remember back when the drinking age was 18 and it wasnt pretty.

What wasn't "pretty" about it? We were grown, working adults that bought beer when we wanted to. Makes perfect sense to me.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

You write the common misconception that Prohibition did not work. It did in fact work. Drunkenness was in fact reduced. Prohibition was repealed by what today would be called “interests:” i.e. the Kennedy's and their ilk. Capone in Chicago rose by using booze as well as bribery, extortion, murder etc. the true cause of his rise was Chicago political and social corruption. To repeal Prohibition a great media blitz was initiated along with the active promotion of cigarette smoking especially by women. Repeal of Prohibition and initiating of smoking were among the first examples of media control of the mass mind. The same media "Boom" is being used today to promote free love and narcotics addiction. Behind the "Boom" is money and the attitude of damn the consequences.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Then one must be firm enough to act directly against the users as well as the substances themselves. Prohibitions do work, they simply do not work perfectly. However, no Prohibitory law works perfectly; i.e. the laws against murder have not stopped murder. Do we therefore refuse to pass and prosecute acts of murder? Indeed, I have read that most murders in the U.S. are never solved. Therefore, do we stop passing and prosecuting laws against murder?

There are only two major values left today Power and Pleasure.

[houeto]

texting while driving - which is now killing more people than drunks!

I heard that highways accidents causes are #1)Cell phone use, especially texting; #2)Fatigue; #3)Alcohol-related.

The legal definition of 'alcohol-related' has been expanded in some states to the point of absurdity. i.e. Open container even if driver was sober and container was empty.- still alcohol 'related'. Screw MADD!

[sickoflibs]

RE :”What wasn't “pretty” about it? We were grown, working adults that bought beer when we wanted to. Makes perfect sense to me.”

‘The term ‘adults’ is subjective, arbitrary and case dependent.

If a government set the age of an adult at 12 would that mean that 12 year old are ready to make decisions on sex?

That sounds like a train wreck to me.

And the 18 year old drinking age was a train wreck. It came out of the military draft.

[houeto]

Nothing and I mean nothing good comes from drinking.

Really?!?