'Modern ways' moments (number 1)

Well hello reader! And how are you?

(you've come back! Are you mad or something?)

So this post will be about drinking.

Now I will the first to admit I'm a very light drinker when it comes to the scale ranging from stone cold sober to alcoholic. But there is something that I have noticed when I have been going out for the past couple of years. I'm guessing it's not a new thing (though it might well be) but I don't remember as many people doing this when I was younger. Anyway you'll see what I'm on about in a few minutes. So where to start? Well let's start at Friday night.

Now while it wasn't the minus temperatures of the last couple of weeks it was still a bit on the nippy side. Possibly a bit more than nippy. Possibly a little bit of frost on the ground. It wasn't warm is what I'm saying right. So yours truly here, being of sound mind and body (ok soundish mind) took the precaution of wrapping up warm before heading out to the local pub. Had I thought about further I woud have taken a hat as well. Now the heart of the story is coming now. Upon the journey home, it was still rather chilly so I was glad of the extra layers. By extra layers I mean a jumper and a coat. Walking through the streets in the village I passed another couple of pubs and outside were a few people for whom the words 'coat', 'jumper' and 'cold' are a mystery. Now I can think of two reasons for the big difference here.

1: It wasn't actually that cold and I'm just getting a bit nesh in my old age.

or

2: The others were so leathered they could have been in the Arctic circle and not noticed.

And here we come to my 'Why?' moment:
If they were so leathered that they didn't know where they were, why did they get into that state? And more importantly why did the bars in question carry on serving them if they were clearly drunk? Now I'm no prude. I have been drunk on a few occasions, after all none of us are saints. But I've never got to the state where I can't stand up properly and end up falling about in the street. So clearly there is now some sort of culture where getting falling down drunk is considered cool and 'a bit of a laugh'.  Now a couple of the pubs serve shots. As far as I can tell the sole purpose of these drinks is to get you drunk as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Why I don't know. So is it the fault of the pub for selling them or the fault of the people who buy them with the sole intention of getting legless?

Do we need a situation where the pubs shouldn't be trying to make as much money as they possibly can and the average person on the street should be aware of how stupid they look when falling over in the middle of the road and throwing up into the gutter. Or do we say that because this is a free country the minority should be allowed to drink themselves into a stupour, though the vast majority of people don't, even though it is a strain on the police and ambulance services?

Again, not an easy question to answer

Ta ta for now