My argument at this stage would be:
-Yes, drinking in large quantities is bad for you.
-Yes, if you can only socialise and have fun with the aid of drink, it's a bit sad.
-Yes, there are areas of society where drink is a problem.
-Yes, drink can be linked to violent behaviour and social disturbances.
-Yes, in a minority of people drinking ruins their lives (alcoholics) and sometimes kills them (George Best).
That's all my concessions. Alcohol can be an evil thing. Alcohol can ruin the lives of the weak. Alcohol is not a safe substance and can be badly abused.
But ...
Drugs have been used for thousands of years by people, in all cultures and for different reason. Alcohol is a tried and tested drug that can be easily judged. You know exactly where you are with alcohol at each stage and can control the "hit" precisely.
People who drink alcohol are taking a drug and want an effect. Therefore, if you want that effect, you have to drink. You can't make the argument "why not have pop instead?", cos pop isn't a drug (it's one of the characters from Rice Crispies). It has the effective of giving you a warm glowing buzz but more importantly it suppresses your inhibitions. You can't get that from a mental decision to just drop them. That's incredibly difficult.
Inhibitions are a result of society enforcing standard upon us, e.g. you must not swear, you must keep quiet in public, you must wear clothes, you must not do silly things else people will hate you, you must be polite to all, you must contain your emotions. Inhibitions are also more internal and emotional, especially fear related e.g. you won't talk to that girl for fear of rejection, you won't fight someone for fear of getting beaten up, you won't do X for fear of looking stupid. And the fear once again comes back to society.
Alcohol thins that veil. It provides you with something you simply cannot get unless you have incredible self confidence and mental strength (and probably insanity) - it decreases and decreases your inhibitions. With inhibitions decreased you begin to show your true colours. You get to do the things and act the way you truly want to and say the things you want to say without fear of what people will think. You finally have the balls to chat up the girl who you thought was unreachable ... hey, maybe even 3 or 4 girls.
You can dance about in a crowd of strangers knowing full well you look retarded. It's a level of freedom for your mind that you cannot get without the drug.
In the course of showing your true colours though, a lot of alcohol related violence kicks off. This is an unfortunate indication of how many violent twats we have in society - people that are walking around every day fancying themselves as Van Dam, but only have the balls to act upon it when pissed. But this is an inset problem with the person, and not the alcohol itself. I for one have never been in a fight when drunk. I feel more friendly towards people under the influence because those are my true colours.
So when you think a pissed person is acting stupid, or making a fool of themselves, what you're actually saying is "I've been told by society doing X is stupid and that drunk guy is doing X, therefore alcohol has made him stupid". The simple fact is the drunk guy has lost his inhibitions. He doesn't give a f*** what society says is ok. He's doing what he wants to do and is liberated by it.
And that's the whole point and why we have a cuture of drinking (especially in the UK). It's not just a drug that makes you dizzy or something pointless like that. In decent quantities it's a drug that frees you from the chains of what society deems "socially acceptable" and allows you to be yourself and have fun. And thats why when everyone around you is doing the same you can have some truly awesome nights. Everyone gets to finally be themselves and ignore what is considered cool, or stupid or embaressing and just have fun. You simply can't get that through choice anymore. With the power of brainwashing society and the media has on all of us, the only way to drop those chains is at the pub.
In fact, some could argue, the pub is the place of self descovery and true freedom.
