[PakG1]

Back when I was first attending university, I attended this national entrepreneurship convention with fellow peers from my university's local chapter. There was a social night where they rented out an entire bar and we were all socializing. I was with a female friend from my university, who was pretty and obviously a magnet for all sorts of men. She asked me if I could get her some water, so I did. I brought a bottle of water to her, from which she sipped. Some obnoxious dude comes up to us, wanting to know her. She's a magnet. He discovers that I gave her the water, and he looks at me incredulously, loudly saying, "You got her WATER? WATER???"

Not being a heavy drinker back then, plus being your standard computer nerd, I was of course uncomfortable. I felt shame, but I couldn't figure out why it was justified. I also felt resentment because I had done nothing wrong. Years later, I've discovered the shame was never justified, the guy was just a douche (for whatever reason), and I was quite happy my whole life without ever getting piss drunk. I did get buzzed at least three times in my life, so I don't know what it would take to make me really drunk. Guess I'll never know though, because I quit drinking after meeting my wife because she doesn't like to drink. But I'm fine with it.

I do wonder if society would be more civil if there was no pressure to drink. I don't think non-drinkers should judge people who drink, and drinkers certainly should not judge people who don't drink. But it is an awkward truth that alcohol is often associated with misbehaviour or worse, and I'm not sure how society deals with that and also avoids going down the path of the US prohibition era and the backlash that is Al Capone. I've lost faith in society's ability to engage in nuance and not be judgmental. Bleh.

[sva_]

> I do wonder if society would be more civil if there was no pressure to drink

And I sometimes wonder if drinking has a noticable effect on population growth.