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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 37, Number 9. 1st May 1974

Drunkenness inevitable under capitalism

Drunkenness inevitable under capitalism

Sir,

I cannot help wondering at the inconsistency of your paper. While on the one hand criticising the overbearing morality of Patricia Bartlett you at the same time try to foist upon us a morality of your own. This was especially evident in your article on drunkenness and fighting In the student union. You deplore the drunkenness which quite often leads to the fights. However you have often diagnosed the need for drunkennes as the product of a sick system. The capitalist system with all its pressures and stresses leads one to these paths to find relaxation and social enjoyment. The sad fact is that quite often the result is to merely magnify the frustrations and cause a need to release them In violent activity. Surely you can see that this sort of thing is inevitable under the social system you condemn. Drunkenness has always been with us especially among the oppressed and the working classes. If a university function is advertised downtown quite often the people it appeals to are the working classes. Our society is a drinking society at all levels apart from perhaps intellectuals who find relaxation and refuge in discussion. This is possibly why student functions are not characterised by fights, vomiting and drunkenness — a fax more common sight at Polytech.

To expect people who normally drink heavily to change their standards when they come to a university function is rather naive. I think it is something we have to live with, and I don't think any of us can stand on a pedestal declaiming such activity. I must admit violent drunkenness is not my idea of fun, but I think we should realise that for so many people people it is.

A. Clear