Drunken words and false consciousness about alcohol

A year or so back I suggested that we need to tackle binge-drinking as a cultural intervention; that we should be aware of how drinking is construed in the stories we tell and are told about nights out and what happens or is supposed to happen in them.

"Essentially, in an instance like this, intoxication provides a 'cultural timeout' from regulating one's behavior."' Wasted' and 'hammered' versus 'buzzed' and 'tipsy' is more than just semantics

This pretty much backs up my thesis, I think. Though I'd go further and want to situate these words within a narrative ecology which talks about the expected behaviours and perspectives around drinking alcohol with friends on a night out: the constructions of 'manhood' in relation to what quantity of what kind of drink, the supposed memory-lapsing properties of drink to give alibis for not regulating behaviour, the reframing of vomiting as amusing and so on.

We need counter stories and effective ways to puncture the bubbles providing the reframing and the alibis. 'We' all know in reality that it is fairly rare for most of us to not remember, but as long as we continue to collude in this false-non-memory syndrome, for example, we collude in the bad behaviours that can be carried out under its banner because the non-remembrance acts as a get out of jail free card whereby we aren't responsible (a) because we were drunk and (b) because we don't remember and so can't be held responsible. Of course, if we can't remember, then how do we know we've had a good time? Conveniently the social group holds the memory for us and retells us in such a way as we can laugh at our own stupidity without taking it personally because in a way it wasn't us in our right mind. In reality, of course, most people in this position remember well-enough but their friends collude in the memory loss. After all, one day it'll be their turn to have a convenient amnesia and they're counting on reprocation in collusion.