Maybe people don't like being violent all that much

[nancylebov]

http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/11/violence-a-micr.html

A review of a sociologist's look at violence, including micro-expressions of perpetrators.

Sorry I can't do a more thorough entry--I'm back using the library 30 min./day. I hope to have broadband by next week.

However, this book looks as though it might be major.

See also The Easy Way to Stop Drinking which claims that no one actually enjoys alcohol. It's argued forcifully, and the claim is made that many people have stopped drinking as a result of that book and related workshops. I don't like alcohol--never have--and it's weird to think that I might be in the majority.

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I very, very seldom drink, but I do enjoy the effects of alcohol. I just recognize they aren't good for me. I'm skeptical about any claim that nobody does.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Weird.

I enjoy alcohol. I enjoy the taste. I enjoy the way that it carries flavors and esters. I enjoy being buzzed.

[firecat]

I had to learn to like alcoholic drinks but now I do like the taste. But I don't drink much because I don't like being buzzed at all.

[gildedacorn.livejournal.com]

I don't think people in general like *alcohol.* They either like the taste of certain drinks which *contain* alcohol (like me) or they like the effects thereof (like some other people).

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

It's not the taste of the alcohol itself -- I'm less fond of vodka than of other ethanol-containing substances. It's that the alcohol carries the esters and other flavor-ish molecules in a way that nothing else we know of can, as xiphias pointed out. So, like you, I like the taste of certain drinks which *contain* alcohol... and they don't taste as good without it.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Isn't that like saying that people don't in general like sugar, or salt -- they just like the taste of them, or the effects of them?

[avram]

If people didn't enjoy alcohol, would it be so widespread? Did any culture but the native North Americans not develop some kind of alcoholic beverage?

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying no one likes the buzz--but you also have to remember that (1) for a long time, fermenting grains and fruit was one of the few reliable ways to preserve them, and (2) for an even longer time, potable water might be scarce and drinks with alcohol would be a more reliable source of liquid. On the other hand, even animals, such as bears, are drawn to eat fermenting fruit, even when they have alternatives.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Not that I know of. Also, in the American Southwest, they drank a fermented cactus fruit drink, and I think there were other similar drinks in much of the rest of North America. AFAIK, only peoples living in or very near the arctic didn't have alcohol, and that's largely because making it up there is exceptionally difficult.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that many American Indian cultures did have alcohol -- they just didn't have distillation.

[avram]

Yeah, I remembered reading that native Americans had fermented beverages, but when I checked Wikipedia's entry on the history of alcohol, the three drinks it listed for Pre-Columbian America were described as local to Middle and South America. So I figured there was a chance that maybe the North American natives maybe didn't.

I like the taste of alchoal

[celticferret.livejournal.com]

I like the taste of well made alcohalic drinks. I like expensive beer, good whiskies and the taste of cream liquors. I won't drink if my only choice is swill.

I don't really like to drink to get buzzed. With alcohalism on both sides of the family I had a 1 in 4 shot at being an alcholic. My son's odds may be even higher since his father is an alcoholic.

As an adult child of an alcohalic, I'm a codependent, a form of addiction based on inapropriately helping people who really don't want to be helped. As a behavioral addict, I will need to evaluate my relationships closely.

KG