In the following interview about the impact of economic inequality, Dr. Jordan B. Peterson and evolutionary psychology pioneer Dr. Martin Daly brought up an interesting statistic that I'd never heard before which is that about 50% of murderers had alcohol in their systems at the time of the murder. Not only that, but 50% of the victims did too!
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Coincidentally I was also recently watching the following video of Simon Sinek in which he points out that almost all alcoholics discovered alcohol when they were teenagers.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that alcohol is the root of all evil, or drawing a hard causal relationship between alcohol and any other sociological phenomena. But throughout my life I couldn't help but notice how often alcohol played a factor in the bad events I either witnessed or experienced. The correlation has seemed to so strong that I once asked myself, "What would a dystopian future where the world was ravaged by alcohol abuse look like?" Ever since I first had that thought I've had difficulty not seeing our very own world as exactly that. Just walk around your local downtown Thursday through Saturday night and estimate how many people have alcohol coursing through their veins. 90% percent often seems like a fair estimate. And all of this ignores the well established link between alcohol consumption and negative health effects.
What's My Point?
What causes violence is an insanely complex subject that is unlikely to boil down to one causal factor. Daly's hypothesis seems to be that what it really comes down to is relative income inequality, and that seems right to me. Even a certain percentage of the aforementioned alcohol consumption may very well be attributable to people steeling themselves in anticipation of a violent confrontation. In other words, the alcohol in people's systems might to some extent be explained by them preparing for a violent confrontation and not the cause of the confrontation itself.
Cigarettes
However, given the ridiculously high percentage of both perpetrators of violence and victims of violence with alcohol in their blood I can't help but wonder if we could seriously reduce our own likelihoods of being the victims of violence (or the perpetrators) if we limit our own alcohol consumption. I'm certainly not saying that we should ban alcohol, but perhaps we should reconsider how accepting we are of its prominence within our culture. Many know that alcohol can be as bad for your health as smoking cigarettes, but cigarettes do not have this connection to violence, and yet people do not hesitate to openly and vocally criticize those who smoke.
An Alcohol Tax?
Many might argue for taxing alcohol like we tax cigarettes, but I am not at all impressed by the supposed impact these taxes have with respect to decreasing consumption nor am I convinced that the negative impact of criminalizing related activities (like selling loose cigarettes which is what led to the death of Eric Garner) are not worth considering. I don't feel the analyses of these taxes adequately account for the ever increasing awareness of the negative health effects of smoking, the social stigma that has become attached to the activity, or the aforementioned negative side effects of criminalization that are rarely considered. But the taxes due demonstrate our attitude toward smoking. We as a society are willing to publicly penalize people who participate in this unhealthy and dangerous act and the science of social pressure is well established.
Throwing Stones
At this stage in my life, I am always hesitant to tell other people how to live their lives. The aphorism, "Every time you point a finger at a person, there are 4 more pointing back at you," has demonstrated itself to be more of a "truism." I obviously am not going to walk around chastising anyone who chooses to have an alcoholic beverage, nor am I going to abstain myself. But I do think it's safe to say that given the horrifying correlation I opened this article with, this is at the very least a conversation we aren't having nearly enough.
