Why do we feel the need to drink copious amounts of alcohol to feel happy?

Maybe not to feel happy, but as a given when one goes out. As if there is a correlation between the fermentation process and the smile on your face. Consider your average content drunk individual. But there is more to the story.

Perhaps excessively drinking alcohol is a vain search for what is lacking in one’s life. An altered state where the individual is in complete “control” and may judge what he or she perceives.

Regardless, I have recently noticed my alcohol consumption in the past 5 years. Although my life has not been radically altered by it, in my opinion, I am concerned why someone like myself does it.

Perhaps not in the sense of a health issue. But just as an interesting critique of a particular contemporary norm.

So go to a bar. Look closely at the patrons, and ask yourself, why come to such an establishment? Just be sure to tip your bartender $1 per drink while you gather ethnographical data.