Learning from the Beast

Beast is not alone in being an acquired taste. Most of the celebrated inebriants, such as fine wines, scotches and other beers, tasted pretty foul to all of us at some point in our lives. Great works of art, such as those of Picasso and Pollock, looked pretty ugly when we were younger, much as the works of Melville and Shakespeare were long and boring. The change in outlook occurred as elders showed us how to appreciate qualities not immediately apparent to the novice taster, viewer or reader. We come to see beauty because we were guided there by others.

Because of the high drinking age, Americans overwhelmingly wait until college before they start drinking alcohol on a semi-regular basis. The responsibility for showing people how to think about and handle alcohol falls on slightly older college students, the ones who host parties. From a public health perspective, that’s bad. In an ideal world, students would arrive at college knowing where their personal limits are and how to reach their ideal level of inebriation. Instead of giving alcohol the proper respect it deserves, students follow the example of others who themselves have not thought about their limits. That’s a recipe for both visits to McCosh and hospitalizations.

Obviously the University, as an academic institution interested in the safety and well-being of students, takes notice of events happening on campus. We should care about safety as well. Therefore, Princeton students should think about how their drinking habits fit into a wider campus culture. Consider the case of Andre sparkling wine which is commonly seen at Lawnparties. Andre is sweet and delicious, but it’s too heavily carbonated to easily chug. As a drink, it encourages slow, safe drinking, while being widely enjoyed and costing little. Andre has become a part of campus culture, as a safer, more fun alternative to pre-gaming with hard alcohol.

We students need to take some responsibility with regard to alcohol in order to create an environment that aligns fun with reasonable precautions for safety. There are ways in which we can structure parties to create fewer problems, so that the University does not feel the need to negatively change policies. One of those ways is to fundamentally rethink the relationship between various kinds of alcohol and various types of events. Beast is perfect as a social lubricant at large parties because, generally speaking, people tend to drink only enough Beast as they need to get to their preferred level of inebriation. Wine is better suited for dinners, because the higher alcohol content is matched with food and slower drinking. Fitting the beverages to the event is a matter of forethought and awareness.

Awareness is important for getting people to think about how alcohol relates to their college experience. A lot of people enjoy alcohol, despite the lack of thought that often goes into what and how we drink. Too few Princetonians take the time to introduce others to the wider world of beer: of mass-produced domestics, of craft beers and of imported beers. Too few Princetonians take the time to show others how little a shot (1.5 fl oz) of alcohol really is when poured into a 12 or 16 oz cup. Too few Princetonians openly discuss how much and what they prefer to drink to get them to their preferred level of buzz. That’s a shame, and that’s a responsibility that the older segment of Princeton’s student body ought to take up.

Alcohol, even in large quantities, is not in-and-of-itself bad: Alcohol to excess, however, is. We should think of the effects that others following our collective leads will have on wider campus culture. Small student-led changes, such as encouraging people to measure out their drinks, promote the general well-being much more than the University taking the lead on alcohol safety: That would probably take the form of Public Safety taking a hard line against on-campus parties. As the example of Princetonian enjoyment of Milwaukee’s Best goes to show, the hosts of parties can and do influence people’s preferences. Because preferences are somewhat malleable, we collectively can create a safer and, more importantly, more fun Princeton experience for all if we collectively make an effort.

Christopher Troein is an economics major from Windsor, England. He can be reached at ctroein@princeton.edu.