The Philosophy of Ale: Is Drunkenness Justified?

“All the things that belong properly to temperance are necessary to the present life, and their excess is harmful”  Thomas Aquinas

I have always found most conversations more delightful when accompanied with a pint of ale. Of course, others would prefer a whisky or what I call a ‘foofoo drink’ (lesser goods would be coffee or soda, and one should always drink these if he/she struggles with alcoholism), but whatever the chosen beverage maybe, it better not be a glass of water. As far as I am concerned, to order a glass of water, while meeting with a friend at a local pub, is a grave social sin. Such an abhominal action is sort of like agreeing to meet a friend you haven’t seen in a few years at a BBQ joint and ordering a house salad, while your lonely friend feels ashamed of eating a mound of pulled pork, smothered in sauce with a mountain of fries. A person’s health concern is not the issue here. You don’t order the salad because by doing so you are blaspheming the sacred ritual of friendship. A major part of meeting a friend for conversation at a local restaurant or pub is the sharing in the fruits of creation. When either your food or ale comes to your table, there is a shared drooling, a shared righteous jealously, and shared desire to let the other partake in your goods. Such a bond draws the friends closer together because the circulation of the food or ale is the outward sign of the inward reality of love each have for the other.  How can a glass of water or a house salad be such a sacrament? 

Perhaps, the reason I see a pint of ale as properly fitting to enriching a conversation so much is because ale is first and foremost a social drink. Every ale drinker knows that keg ale is of far better quality in taste and delectability than bottled ale. Before the invention of pressurized kegs, ale was simply placed into a wooden cask and one would have to pump it out. These wooden casks, lacking the pressurizing nature, could not preserve the precious cargo, so it was of absolute necessity that the ale be drank in one to two days. Afterwards, the ale would begin to deteriorate in quality of taste and delectability.  Given the larger quantity of ale contained in a wooden cask, and the necessity to drink this ale in such a short period of time, the local public house (or pub) was the desired location to sever this drink. The rest, we might say, is history.

However, this drink’s history is not the only reason I believe ale is first and foremost a social drink. Ale's ability to calm the nerves and inhibitions when drank at moderate levels can be of great help for conversations to achieve their maximum productivity.  This ability ale has may even be necessitated in certain harden men. I can speak first hand of the many confessions, tears, and honest assessments of one’s character I’ve witnessed while someone is in a state of 'good-cheer'. Such a drink may in fact be one of the sole reasons God allowed men to invent ale, for He knows how prideful we human persons can be.

Here I am only speculating, and I can imagine many thinking I have crossed the line by writing as such, and there is a sense in which I would agree with them. For while I have heard and seen many good things come from ale, I have also witness people act like damned fools prowling around like wild dogs.  Such an activity could have never been intended by God or proscribed by right reason. The question, though, is why?

The answer I suggest lies in the social nature of ale.  All of us are social beings by nature. Such a fact seems so obvious as to be trivial. Unlike our animal counterparts, who have a form of sociability, our sociability centers around our rational capacities. The raising of children does not (or at least ought not) to solely center around the development of their bodies, but rather on their cognitive ability. Lasting friendships centers around the common pursuit of rational goods, like life, knowledge, virtue, aesthetic experiences, and religion. And, not surprising, delightful conversations with fellow human beings at a local pub obviously involves rationality. In fact, the social nature of ale finds all its importance in assisting the rational flow of the two undergoing conversation.

Yet, at the moment a person consumes enough ale so as to become intoxicated, he violates the very social nature of ale itself. Ale is there to be a sign of true and lasting friendship. Ale is there to help the rational dance to flow with grace. However, when intoxicated, man looses his ability to use his rational capacities. His eyes glaze over thereby clouding the windows of the soul to those around him. He begins to mumble foolishness with his month, which is supposed to be the rational tool to communicate truth and affirmations. Loosing his ability to walk, he becomes a hazard to those around him. Lacking all inhibition, he become loud and belligerent. If he ‘blacks out’ it is even worse, for his consumption of ale reveals an antisocial behavior, for the friends he is drinking with are not there to be loved and enjoyed, but simply to assist in the onslaught of reason. However, the shabbiest use of ale is if he gets wasted in isolation, for here the he tries to avoid even himself.

While some people wear these drunken indulgences like badges of honor, they should instead see them as stigmas on their rational dignity.  Yet, all such boasting on their part really just reveals guilty knowledge, for their boasting is acting like a confession, but without contrition. They admit their boorish behavior to only those who will enter into their laugher, or they speak defensively about it. The reality is, however, they feel ashamed at giving into to their brute desires at some level, unless they have hardened themselves to all of reason. But normally hardened people rarely speak of their drinking. I know plenty of alcoholics, and never once have I heard them talk about how wasted they got yesterday.   

As such, drunkenness is a malevolent behavior that departs from human happiness because it is contrary to right reason. Reason sees the necessity of ale for the use of enjoying those we live with, but it also sees excess as erroneous because it hinders reason’s ability to properly function as a social being.  Reason abhors sloppy foolishness.  

Is this argument right? I am not sure, but even if it is, I am not optimistic that such an argument will be powerful enough to curb the inordinate desire for drink. As Thomas Aquinas says, “man stands in the greatest need of the fear of God in order to shun those things which are most seductive, and these are the matter of temperance.”