Puritan pride

On Dec. 6, 81 IU students were given citations for an array of alcohol violations, including underage consumption and the illegal sale of alcohol without a license. Though drinking citations are commonplace at IU and nothing shocking for the city of Bloomington, the sheer number of students that excise police “cracked down” on made the event a great headliner for the media – but what does this party bust represent for Bloomington or even the country as a whole?

I say it represents the clash between outdated, puritanical ideals and the practicality or necessity of upholding them.

Every few years, or even less, strong debates arise in frustrated communities and among “new generation” political leaders over major social practices that are prohibited by outdated or unwarranted laws or rules.

Social practices like underage drinking and smoking tobacco in “banned” areas are both prominent on the IU-Bloomington campus, yet the laws and rules prohibiting them don’t seem to have any positive social function.

Prohibiting young adults from alcohol consumption is clearly not stopping the practice, nor is punishing them for it. Instead, it is stripping individuals of their freedom of choice for no other purpose than to hold on to a value that has no significance in our society.

Certainly, there are the negatives of drinking, and I am not one to exonerate alcohol of the very real and damaging effects it can have if abused or misused. But our current system does nothing to stop these problems. If anything, it does more to encourage them.

Drinking is an American institution – a cultural identifier that is celebrated and glorified. From cheesy beer commercials to the free T-shirt you get at Kilroy’s for your 21st birthday, drinking has a stronghold in our society and it tells our youth that alcohol is not only fun and exciting, but necessary as a rite of passage into adulthood.

If we didn’t have this age barrier dangling over the heads of young adults, it might just take away some of the mystique surrounding drinking. People are inquisitive by nature, and saying “don’t look” or “don’t touch” just fuels the flame of curiosity. It is the same concept that makes people taste something even after their friends have told them it is “the worst thing I have tried!”

While this is not a new argument, as many people point to Europe as a shining success story of a society with an earlier drinking-age requirement, I still wonder why our society is clinging to values of yore to create and maintain legislation. By ignoring the social practicality of a law, we ignore the true reason for its creation in the first place.

And although I’m sure that down the road this law will be cast away with the other puritanical nonsense of our past (prohibition), I can’t help but wonder what’s stopping us from cracking down on defunct and arguably destructive legislation instead of the “underage misfits” populating our institutions of higher education.