Yes – Michael Cooper
We have so many different charity themed months now, Movember, Stoptober we’ve have heard it all! The newest in this wave of charity sponsored months of deprivation is ‘Dryathlon’ – the idea is that all those taking part give up alcohol for the whole of January and get sponsored for doing so. I think this is a brilliant idea, even for us students; if there is one body in society that needs to rein in the alcohol consumption, it is students.
Alcohol is such a part of student life that giving it up cannot be a bad thing. I for one know that the student lifestyle really takes it out of you – and I think a lot of that is done to the excesses of alcohol. The Dryathlon is, of course, for charity and raising awareness for cancer, and of course no one doubts the intrinsic value of that. But along with Stoptober, giving up a vice for a month also carries a lot of positives for the person partaking in it independent of the social outcomes that result for charity.
A group of journalists who did the Dryathlon found that as well as lowering body and crucially liver fat, it also helped increase their ability to concentrate. Surely as students we should consider the implications of living the teetotal lifestyle even if just for temporary periods of time – restraint is a virtue that is not exercised enough by students – and I think that is a bad thing.
Now the last thing I want to be is a party pooper, and I do admit to having been through quite a few heavy nights myself, but this is by no means a statement about drinking in general. I just believe on balance that temporary bouts of teetotal-ness cannot be a bad thing especially if they help raise awareness of cancer. January is also a very stressful month for students, getting back from the Christmas break and then suddenly thrown into a whirlwind of exams and essay deadlines. Why not stay off the booze for a while? Not only will this help you feel better after the worst excesses of Christmas but also you may do better in your exams as a result.
It may be hard for those that are so entrenched in the partying scene at university to stop drinking, but surely that makes it all the more important? Restraint is not a life skill that is applauded in this consumerist age but it is a skill that will certainly help us in later life – alcohol should not be used as a solution to all of life’s problems. As for me I have not got off to a dry start this January but I will certainly consider doing it next year.
No – Will Mccurdy
Alcohol can be a hard thing to defend at times. It seems to be a cause of every social ill that one may care to mention, from cancer to violent crime.
For thousands of years governments and religions all over the world have tried their hands at banning it, and the vast majority of them have failed miserably. Historically it’s a uniquely unbanishable substance. Despite its well known connection to health problems, its relatively high price and its waist widening potential, millions of people happily wreck their livers every weekend. Why? Because it’s great, that’s why. You don’t need to drink to have fun: but it definitely helps. Jay Gatsby didn’t get rich selling tap water.
Students these days have a hard and uncertain future ahead of them, graduating with unimaginable debts into an uncertain job. If alcohol makes us forget about our troubles then so be it. Who can blame us? If downing tequila shots in a converted Chinese restaurant makes people forget about the mess we’re in, all the better.
Alcohol itself isn’t a problem. It’s excess reliance on it that screws people up. As cliché as it may be, the phrase “all things in moderation” is very true. People don’t need to give up cold turkey; they just need to have some self-control and not miss too many lectures in a hungover haze.
Raising money for charity is all well and good. But demonizing alcohol is unfair. It’s not alcohol that’s the problem, it’s a small minority of people with issues.
It’s a cute concept, I can’t deny that, but couldn’t people give up something a little less closer to home like chocolate or takeaways? Let’s be honest, alcohol is essentially a sacrament for students. For better or worse, it’s part of the fabric of university life.
When I walk into Willow on a Friday night I don’t see people falling into the claws of some great social evil. I see third years temporarily forgetting about the terror of their impeding graduations. I see people having the time of their lives dancing to Taylor Swift songs that only hours ago they would have been too cool for. I see ugly people getting laid. I see what essentially is a very beautiful thing. Yes, alcohol may kill you, it may make you fat, but on a long enough timescale that’s going to happen anyway and you might as well not remember exactly how it happened. I think Homer Simpson said it best: “To alcohol, the cause of and solution to, all of life’s problems.”