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The Irish, counter to the stereotype, are the European community's most abstemious tipplers, consuming less than 2 gal. of alcohol per capita annually. In Britain, where the corner pub is a second home and a pint is considered a birthright, 95% of all adults in England, Scotland and Wales are drinkers. Beer consumption is down slightly, however, due to high unemployment and increased taxes on alcohol. In West Germany, beer intake has tripled over three decades, to 9 billion liters annually. "We have a saying," says an official of the National Health Ministry in Bonn, "that 'a man isn't a man until he's been drunk.' "
Some experts think that the neo-temperance mood in America could lead to a new prohibition era, even though there is a national trend away from local option laws that ban sales of liquor by the drink. Says Yale Professor David Musto: "Historically, temperance moods have led to prohibition. There's a human tendency to get carried away." Even if Musto is right, chances are that the pendulum of excess will swing back again. What put an end to Prohibition in 1933 was not so much that it was unworkable and unenforceable. According to some historians, it lowered U.S. drinking as much as 50%. A main reason for repeal, write Authors Mark Lender and James Martin in Drinking in America, was "popular disgust with the rigidity of temperance advocates . . . their all or nothing posture."
Robin Room, director of the Alcohol Research Center in Berkeley, suggests that the advances made as a result of the current temperance mood could soon be reversed. Legislating against alcohol, he says, "can make it a potential symbol of rebellion, as it was for middle-class youth in the 1920s rebelling against Victorian morals. We're already seeing the signals on college campuses." Ironically, a return to heavier social drinking could come about because of the change in attitudes and laws. "If the temperance people succeed in curbing alcoholism and alcohol abuse," says Room, "the problem will pretty much disappear, and people won't remember what all the fuss was about." Such a swing, he says, could come in as little as 20 years.
Rapid reversals in public temperament may be a social reality, but they are not to everyone's taste. Julia Child speaks for many when she says, "A glass of wine is part of civilized life. But we're inclined in this country to go overboard on everything. I believe in moderation in all things." Whether with a small glass of water, wine or something harder, the proposition deserves a hearty toast.
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