Bodzilla
September 3rd, 2013, 11:18 AM
Howdy guys i'm gunna float an idea by yas, and i want you to think analyze and respond.
I Personally believe that in places all around the world that community ties, spirit and activism is being increasingly eroded, and that it's so powerful that it's even having a tremendous effect negative effect on mental health for things like depression, anxiety ect.
What i'm talking about is Take-away alcohol.
Over thousands of years mankind has been making the stuff, it's so old that it's theorized in some circles that the origin of the written language could have been the writing down of recipes to make alcohol. Whether thats true or not is irrelevant, but it's an incredibly ancient practice we've been doing through all developed civilizations that have existed on this planet.
How we handle it has changed in that time. We put restrictions in place to mandate how the drug is served to people. We've created things like minimum age, security, the responsible service of alcohol, food has to be available, sleeping arrangements ect ect.
And this is to make sure it's a safe environment in pubs and clubs to go drinking, to try and mange the negative sides of it.
But a recent thing changed that, we began to sell it over the counter for people to take home.
and thats changed everything.
It's clear alcohol is very, very big buisness, which is quite evident from massive company's such as Westfarm (woolworths) and Coles (both are supermarkets who own 40% EACH of australias food supply) have moved in and are dominating the sale of alcohol.
And it's because it's cheap.
They dont have to provide security, because it's not consumed on site, and a whole raft of other expenses pubs are forced to endure. And that isn't even mentioning they're market buying power, so they can get it twice as cheap as the pubs can.
This all leads into a massive difference in cost for people at the pub vs the take away alcohol, and most people have voted with their wallet and left the pubs.
But what people dont understand in this is that pubs have traditionally been a community hub for thousands of years. People would migrate to then, for a drink, because it's the only place they could get it. There they would do the most important thing a community can do. Talk to each other.
They'd exchange different ideals, rally for social cause's and network with other people. They'd form sports teams, they'd do fundraisers for schools and other important things in the region, they'd be socially engaged as to what was happening around them and form protests against things they didnt like. I cannot possibly over-state how important this is for people.
So many community related projects where born in pubs for this very reason, because you'd have a sizeable chunk of the population, in a small area.
And we've lost it.
If you talk to anyone from a smaller town or rural place i can guarantee to you that you'll hear the same stoy's, that people dont know each other anymore, the town isn't as safe as it used to be, the community spirit is gone.
and it's my personal belief that all of these things are making people feel more isolated, more alone in a big wide world. There arn't as many people to lean on, talk to or socialize with, and thats why i think it's also affecting alot of peoples emotional and psychological health.
If you want a better community, a friendlier place, a better social structure... Get people back to the pubs by changing the way we do take away alcohol, by either forcing more tax on it, removing tax at the pub or outright removing licenses for people to sell it as take-away.
TL : DR
One of the reason's community's and social interactions are being destroyed is because of take away alcohol.
For thousands of years if people wanted a drink they had to go to a specific place to get it, and over time we made legal requirements like "the responsible service of alcohol" sleeping arrangements, security food ect.
So people would gather in their local hubs and talk about things, network and connect to other people.
Now with take-away alcohol dominating the market because it's cheaper and they dont need security or any of those other restrictions because it's not consumed on-site, people take it home, drink by themselves of with their partners.
They no longer connect or socialize with other people or network. It's also one of hte major reasons activism isn't as pronounced as it used to be in earlier times, because the people that drank together, played sport together and protested together.
You wanna fix a society's ability to form ACTUAL community's and not just a bunch of house's close together? Get people back to the pub.
They're more important then schools.
Let me know what you think
I Personally believe that in places all around the world that community ties, spirit and activism is being increasingly eroded, and that it's so powerful that it's even having a tremendous effect negative effect on mental health for things like depression, anxiety ect.
What i'm talking about is Take-away alcohol.
Over thousands of years mankind has been making the stuff, it's so old that it's theorized in some circles that the origin of the written language could have been the writing down of recipes to make alcohol. Whether thats true or not is irrelevant, but it's an incredibly ancient practice we've been doing through all developed civilizations that have existed on this planet.
How we handle it has changed in that time. We put restrictions in place to mandate how the drug is served to people. We've created things like minimum age, security, the responsible service of alcohol, food has to be available, sleeping arrangements ect ect.
And this is to make sure it's a safe environment in pubs and clubs to go drinking, to try and mange the negative sides of it.
But a recent thing changed that, we began to sell it over the counter for people to take home.
and thats changed everything.
It's clear alcohol is very, very big buisness, which is quite evident from massive company's such as Westfarm (woolworths) and Coles (both are supermarkets who own 40% EACH of australias food supply) have moved in and are dominating the sale of alcohol.
And it's because it's cheap.
They dont have to provide security, because it's not consumed on site, and a whole raft of other expenses pubs are forced to endure. And that isn't even mentioning they're market buying power, so they can get it twice as cheap as the pubs can.
This all leads into a massive difference in cost for people at the pub vs the take away alcohol, and most people have voted with their wallet and left the pubs.
But what people dont understand in this is that pubs have traditionally been a community hub for thousands of years. People would migrate to then, for a drink, because it's the only place they could get it. There they would do the most important thing a community can do. Talk to each other.
They'd exchange different ideals, rally for social cause's and network with other people. They'd form sports teams, they'd do fundraisers for schools and other important things in the region, they'd be socially engaged as to what was happening around them and form protests against things they didnt like. I cannot possibly over-state how important this is for people.
So many community related projects where born in pubs for this very reason, because you'd have a sizeable chunk of the population, in a small area.
And we've lost it.
If you talk to anyone from a smaller town or rural place i can guarantee to you that you'll hear the same stoy's, that people dont know each other anymore, the town isn't as safe as it used to be, the community spirit is gone.
and it's my personal belief that all of these things are making people feel more isolated, more alone in a big wide world. There arn't as many people to lean on, talk to or socialize with, and thats why i think it's also affecting alot of peoples emotional and psychological health.
If you want a better community, a friendlier place, a better social structure... Get people back to the pubs by changing the way we do take away alcohol, by either forcing more tax on it, removing tax at the pub or outright removing licenses for people to sell it as take-away.
TL : DR
One of the reason's community's and social interactions are being destroyed is because of take away alcohol.
For thousands of years if people wanted a drink they had to go to a specific place to get it, and over time we made legal requirements like "the responsible service of alcohol" sleeping arrangements, security food ect.
So people would gather in their local hubs and talk about things, network and connect to other people.
Now with take-away alcohol dominating the market because it's cheaper and they dont need security or any of those other restrictions because it's not consumed on-site, people take it home, drink by themselves of with their partners.
They no longer connect or socialize with other people or network. It's also one of hte major reasons activism isn't as pronounced as it used to be in earlier times, because the people that drank together, played sport together and protested together.
You wanna fix a society's ability to form ACTUAL community's and not just a bunch of house's close together? Get people back to the pub.
They're more important then schools.
Let me know what you think