The longer I stay in college the more I fear for humanity. Let me out of this place - now! Tuesday night - drink; Friday night - drink; Saturday night - drink. Not that I'm not above it. I'm not. I drink, I party, I can throw down too. Ask me about that time I peed on my best friend's basement wall. I was fast asleep and I didn't wake up until someone poked me with a pool cue. That was high school. Things have gotten worse since then. In college, we take it to a whole new level and drink in quantities high-schoolers would never think possible.
We will have to be part of society one day! Can you believe that?
If college culture's celebration of drunkenness was the only problem, it would be easy to fix. But it isn't. Our love affair with alcohol isn't the problem - it is a symptom of an underlying addiction. Our addiction isn't to alcohol or marijuana but to our own gratification and ourselves. We grew up in a society that led us to believe that each moment of our lives was precious and not to be wasted, therefore, we decided not to waste them. Instead of studying or reading, or writing and thinking, we play. We never grew older than seven years old but have substituted jungle juice for the jungle gym - and one is more dangerous than the other. We are in arrested development. College has become a four-year summer camp, except we have more money to play with and fewer rules to govern us.
We are the product of modern comfort and technology. Born into a world where we knew no want, we have created a culture where we never will have to. Work and study is hard, so why do it? Our bank accounts are full, liquor is cheap and we all know someone who lives off-campus. Spend five minutes alone with a bottle of vodka and a shot glass and the rest of the night is not to be worried about, it will take care of itself. Wake up the next morning and prepare to do it again.
But we can't eat cake everyday and expect to stay fit; we can't expect to drink every night and retain our sanity. And we haven't. Any semblance of sanity in our college community has been lost and replaced with a perverted sense of consciousness that celebrates the drunk over the sober and those who slack over those who study.
Life is supposed to be more than drunken hijinks and hookups. It isn't about immediate gratification but about long-term development. One day, not so far off, the liquor and beer will dry up and reveal a scary and difficult world. If this generation never grows up then we are damned to spend our days miserable and morose in a society where there is no room for freeloaders.
We need to divorce ourselves from the very culture we created. We need to cut ourselves loose from the "cult of me" and embrace the responsibility that each of us has towards our families, our world and ourselves. We can't do it drunk or stoned - it needs to be done sober. Sober in mind and spirit, aware that this not endless summer but instead a momentary stop on the inevitable path towards adulthood.
This is not a call for abstinence but instead a call for moderation and sanity, neither of which we practice. A life spent devoted to books is no life at all, but a life spent skipping from one drunken night to the next is worse. Moderate the devotion to pleasure and instant gratification; focus on those things that will make you better. Enjoy what is real in life, and sometimes, when the time calls for it, indulge yourself. But never forget that there is more to life than vodka and Coors.
Charlie Szold is The Eagle's editorial page editor. You can reach him at cszold@theeagleonline.com.
