There are many ways to make yourself unpopular.
Few works as reliably as suggesting that we abstain from alcohol this time.
This evening when meeting colleagues, at the next company outing, at après-ski, at the school anniversary or at the parish festival.
The suggestion is enough, and you're already completely through.
What a fun killer, what a philistine!
But it's enough to just say: Thank you, I don't drink!
This also makes you impossible.
He used to be an alcoholic and isn't allowed to drink anymore?!
Or is that Baptist or Mormon or whatever those weird guys are called who don't drink for religious reasons?
It doesn't matter, the teetotaler is always suspicious and unsympathetic.
Today you can count on social acceptance if you come out as a Marxist or as a stock market gambler, as a vegan, nudist, sadomasochist fan, Buddhist or coke enthusiast.
To each his own.
You can't just refuse alcohol.
Czech President Milos Zeman recently yelled at Prague Castle, wine glass in hand: "Death to teetotallers!!!" Applause and merriment in the hall.
Approved laughter.
Well then cheers!
Only philistines stay abstinent
If a statesman had cursed another minority in such a way – it would have become an international scandal, with notes of protest from all over the world.
However, abstainers do not yet enjoy the protection of political correctness.
And hopefully Zeman didn't mean it the way he said it.
But the way he - let's say jokingly: straight from the heart - gave free rein to his crude aversion to anti-alcoholic complainers gets to the point.
That's the final consensus that nobody questions: alcohol is simply part of being comfortable, sociable, informal, happy.
Every host who is planning a party or a get-together with friends knows the proven magic formula for a successful evening.
"First rule: raise the level!" Because the alcohol in the blood reliably increases the mood of the guests.
It is actually a shameful finding that biochemical tutoring is required to have fun and be in a good mood.
Can't it be fun without material?
Only a spoilsport asks that.
The obvious reply is soon thrown at the curmudgeon: Where is the problem here?
What about a glass or two?
Isn't that part of our cultural tradition: wine or beer with a good meal, maybe a schnapps afterwards and a bottle of sparkling wine when there's something to celebrate?
You have to distinguish between drinking with pleasure and mindless drinking!
Alcohol and alcoholism are not the same!
Alcohol consumption and alcoholism are closely related
Yes, of course all of that is true.
But apparently it's not quite as simple as it sounds, otherwise millions of taxpayers' money would not have to be constantly pumped into awareness campaigns about alcohol abuse and the addiction counseling centers would not have to constantly expand in order to be able to help even more drinkers.
Many politicians experience the schizophrenia of the subject up close and not infrequently even within a single working day: at the morning ceremony in the town hall, they toast the guests with a glass of champagne, at the evening town festival they are expected to drink hard and have a good drink every now and then – in between, in the afternoon, is the start of the new campaign against alcohol abuse among young people, where the politician as patron is supposed to say a few unctuous words.
So that no one smells his flag,