Topics Ethics

Question I don't drink alcohol. I have a few reasons - I rarely enjoy the taste, it's expensive, it's not really healthy, and I don't like letting my behavior be influenced by the substances I drink - but mainly I've just never felt any kind of desire to drink. Yet when I am out with people I don't know particularly well, they tend to be insistent that I drink alcohol with them - remarkably insistent. I've even had people get frustrated with me because I won't drink, frowning and telling me "Stop making a big deal about it, just have a drink!". I've had to make up excuses such as "I used to be an alcoholic," "I'm taking medication" or (if I am desperate) "My religion forbids me from drinking alcohol" - only then will people finally, grudgingly, leave me to my tea. Is it wrong of me to insist not to drink alcohol, or should I, for the sake of not offending my colleagues, suck it up and drink? Is it acceptable for others to insist so strongly that I do so? Why does it even matter? I've occasionally had to tell people that I don't eat things like licorice or yam, and nobody has ever tried to insist I eat those things. I don't see the big deal. Am I violating some special social norm here?

Accepted:
April 5, 2012

Comments

I think these questions are as easily answered as you seem to think they are. You're clearly within your rights -- to put it mildly! -- when you decline alcohol despite being pressured. Is it acceptable for others to pressure you? Morally acceptable, yes, in that it's not morally impermissible. But I'd say it's unfriendly and rude, at a minimum, when you've made it clear you don't drink. If drinking is an important social norm among a particular group of people, I'd suggest you socialize with different people -- and I'd say that even to someone who does drink occasionally. Given the enormous harm caused by alcohol abuse, the moral presumption is, if anything, against anyone who pressures people to drink.