train groups of young people to socialise romantically and sexually with the opposite sex to replace substance-assisted romantic and sexual initiatory behaviour.
Alcohol works as a ‘social lubricant’ to make people less inhibited, in moderation it’s very effective at what it does. It also works quickly and is cheap. There is also a culture and set of traditions around alcohol, as well as a powerful industry lobby.
I pity the fool who tries to compete with something that is so good at what it does, especially with a ‘training program’.
The only way I can see alcohol being dislodged is with another drug which is specifically engineered to be better than alcohol at what it does (reduce anxiety, provide an excuse for people to get away with things, etc) but also has none of the problems that alcohol has.
Lol… well that is slightly off topic but it might or might not be true. I do think that well designed recreational drugs are an under-studied topic though.
Furthermore, the environment where you salsa dance is not as prone to social anxiety since everybody is there to dance. There is less anxiety at being rejected. And, as you start dancing or just hearing the beat, it releases some internal chemicals in your brain because you do feel more loose even without drugs.
Anyhow, where I have learned to dance, there were parties where people did drink. But you are probably right that people drank less in that environment.
it’s a combination of cultural inertia + the actual utility of alcohol which gets that culture started. Your own example illustrates that well: alcohol impairs the activity of salsa dancing, so a culture of not drinking when you dance developed.
Yes. There are also a few additional factors:
If you dance than you train the ability to ask strangers to dance is a fairly structured way because you have to do it all the time.
Dancing does provides a fairly structured way of having a good time together on a physical level.
That means that if you want to create a social enviroment whereby people don’t drink alcohol you need to provide social rituals that make it easy for people to connect. Preferably rituals that also allow people to process their emotions so that they don’t have to use alcohol to get them out of the way.
Alcohol works as a ‘social lubricant’ to make people less inhibited, in moderation it’s very effective at what it does. It also works quickly and is cheap. There is also a culture and set of traditions around alcohol, as well as a powerful industry lobby.
I pity the fool who tries to compete with something that is so good at what it does, especially with a ‘training program’.
The only way I can see alcohol being dislodged is with another drug which is specifically engineered to be better than alcohol at what it does (reduce anxiety, provide an excuse for people to get away with things, etc) but also has none of the problems that alcohol has.
Yeah. Actually I think LWers might benefit from alcohol more than the general population, because we’re a pretty uptight bunch.
Lol… well that is slightly off topic but it might or might not be true. I do think that well designed recreational drugs are an under-studied topic though.
I think it’s mainly an issue of culture. When dancing Salsa for example alcohol means dancing worse and thus people don’t drink as much.
Furthermore, the environment where you salsa dance is not as prone to social anxiety since everybody is there to dance. There is less anxiety at being rejected. And, as you start dancing or just hearing the beat, it releases some internal chemicals in your brain because you do feel more loose even without drugs.
Anyhow, where I have learned to dance, there were parties where people did drink. But you are probably right that people drank less in that environment.
it’s a combination of cultural inertia + the actual utility of alcohol which gets that culture started. Your own example illustrates that well: alcohol impairs the activity of salsa dancing, so a culture of not drinking when you dance developed.
Yes. There are also a few additional factors: If you dance than you train the ability to ask strangers to dance is a fairly structured way because you have to do it all the time. Dancing does provides a fairly structured way of having a good time together on a physical level.
That means that if you want to create a social enviroment whereby people don’t drink alcohol you need to provide social rituals that make it easy for people to connect. Preferably rituals that also allow people to process their emotions so that they don’t have to use alcohol to get them out of the way.