The big questions in life....

[Blobmania]

Please choose one of the following, and discuss. I've made a selection because I am not sure which of these has been done before or not, and can't really be bothered trawling through the forums looking. Yes, I am that lazy.

Anyhow, this is (supposedly) a replacement for the Religion and Philosophy GCSE course I finished at the start of this summer, since I have been wanted to return to those debates now that they are gone.

The list:

Euthanasia
Abortion
Legal Age of Consent
Legal Age to drink

Anyhow... pick one, make a point, and let the arguments begin!

 

[Rujasu]

No. You start your own arguments.

 

[Blobmania]

Foine....

Legal age to drink:

Personally, I believe that this should definitely (In the UK) be lowered to 16. My main reasoning for this (For the moment) is that as a 16 year-old I can currently get/make as much alcohol as I need, despite the laws restrictions. The only problem I have, is that every time I do want a drink I cannot simply walk down to the pub - It is only acceptable to drink, in general, at parties or when going out for lunch or dinner, at least at my age. So, these events tend to be much more alcohol-oriented than they need to be, and the result is large numbers of people (Myself included) drinking themselves into insensibility, making the most of the rare opportunity to drink without it being "frowned upon", to put it lightly.

My other main objection is that at 16 you can get a job doing any number of things, not least of all be joining the army. This in itself is fine - it provides prospects for many young men and women who might otherwise have trouble finding employment. The annoyance in this is the hyppocracy that a 16 year-old man can be shipped to afghanistan (post-training, obviously) and killed in action, or horrifically wounded, but that same 16 year-old who literally risks his life and body to protect our rights and government, cannot take a stroll to the pub and buy + drink a beer, in public.

A good enough argument starter for you, Ljas?

Discuss.

 

[DameGreyWulf]

I am in the US. The legal age to drink is at 21 because apparently the brain, on average, finishes development by this time, and drinking excessively isn't as damaging. So, the law assumes that people below 21 will be constantly drinking to the point of brain damage every time they drink, because they are stupid kids.

Yet at the same time, these stupid kids can 1. vote, 2. give sexual consent, 3. be tried as an adult, 4. sign up for the military, 5. drop out of school, 6. hold a job, 7. drive, 8. purchase a gun, along with many other adult responsibilities you wouldn't want someone who is just a stupid kid to do.

So I believe either we raise the age for those things (which people would severely protest), or lower the age for drinking. Otherwise it makes no god damn sense.

Also, along the same vein of Blob's idea, keeping it high and making it out to be such a "bad thing" is appealing to stupid teenagers, because it plays right into their needs to impress their peers and the possible mates. Lowering won't absolutely fix this, but if we stop treating things like they're Satanic, we'd get less stupid kids screwing up.

 

[Selothi]

Beer is good. Force everyone to like beer.

Then get everyone to enjoy hard liquor.

Then have everyone pass out at least once from idiotic over-drinking.

Kid's scarred for life, job done, they'll drink responsibly.

 

[AWdeV]

I'm both with you. Good thing the Netherlands have this particular thing arranged a bit more neatly. At 18 you're allowed almost anything you'll ever be allowed (exception being heavy motorbikes, you'd need some years of experience for those and you can only get the required experience starting age 1 and drinking is allowed from 16 onwards.

However, this only moves the age to impress your mates by drinking downwards. There've been 12-year and, more commonly, 14-year olds who've drank themselves into comas.

edit: interrupted by Selothi's odd scheme.

 

[Big_Mac]

No thanks, our drinking age is fine as it is. Sure, when I was 16 I could get alll the drink I needed, but if that was the legal drinking age things would be much different, for example alot of people wouldn't just drink at weekends, but maby everyday at the pub seen as though some people would be able to afford it because of jobs etc.

Also, because of immaturity I'm sure alot of people in my year at school would have bought drink on the weekend and possibly would be consuming it during dinner with some mates, causing problems for people they run into and themselves. I'm sure you would see an increase in alcohol related deaths aswell, as I myself know a few people who have liver problems already at 18-19 years old because of excessive drinking, just think of how many more cases there would be, not to mention how even younger people would start picking up a drinking habit because older friends of theirs are already legally allowed to do so.

 

[Blobmania]

hmmm selothi... I've got that horrifically drunk twice =P first time didn't teach me much lol. and I don't doubt i'll do the whole lot all over again. Still, i'm up for another test run =P

Personally though, Big_mac, I think drinking is just part of being young and having a good time. I don't want to live forever if I can't drink what I want, shag who I can, and smoke what I can afford, but ironically if I do all these things I'll unlikely live anywhere near "forever". I'm not so sure that lowering the drinking age would make drinking at odd moments more "acceptable". As far as I can see, the sooner you introduce someone to something properly, the sooner the novelty wears off and they become more sensible with it. All you need are some decent role models, and you're fine. I myself have plenty of older mates who introduced me to drinking, and my cousins (two years older than me ) first introduced me to drugs, and i'm very glad they did so. If they hadn't, i'd have been much more likely to do something stupid. Because I am largely trusted by my parents in terms of alcohol and suchlike, I am allowed to make my own decisions about what I appreciate, and what my limits are. I believe that fact alone makes me drink more responsibly, because I know that any backlash will be against me, because it was my decision and my responsibility to be sensible. I am very happy to have the occasional binge, because I feel that is what I need at a particularly low or high point in my life and it will make me happy, as bad and alcoholic as that sounds.

 

[DameGreyWulf]

Hey, Big_mac, that's what we call a slippery slope fallacy.

It's also why I spoke about not treating things like they're the Dark Side. It's not as tempting if it's not as dangerous and edgy.

Also, seriously, how many people do you know drink all day every day once they are legal age? It's not as common as you think, honestly.

 

[Big_Mac]

All you need are some decent role models, and you're fine.

Not really any of them up here, just a town full of druggies, drunks and dickheads.

Also, seriously, how many people do you know drink all day every day once they are legal age? It's not as common as you think, honestly.

Well, maby not every day, but there are so many people who drink from Thursday to Sunday, just because of student nights and it being the weekend an all. I'm sure if the legal age was decreased bars would create more nights for younger people to drink aswell, just to make more money.

 

[DameGreyWulf]

Slippery slope fallacy once again.
If they could drink every night, then they wouldn't drink as much, don't you think? Ever heard the phrase "make the most of what you got"? Now if you got the most, what do you make of that?

Also, how do you know there are "many people" drinking "all day" from Thurs to Sun?

 

[Big_Mac]

Slippery slope fallacy once again.
If they could drink every night, then they wouldn't drink as much, don't you think? Ever heard the phrase "make the most of what you got"? Now if you got the most, what do you make of that?

Also, how do you know there are "many people" drinking "all day" from Thurs to Sun?

The only thing I hear people talk about on Monday is how much they drank during the weekend before they pissed themselves and were carried home.

But yes, I'm sure they would stop drinking alot of the time and only carry on maby one or two days every weekend, because believe me, there are so many people who binge every weekend simply because there is nothing else to do. I myself used to go to the same guys house every Friday (and Saturday if possible) and get drunk because he always had a free house and eventually word got round and he used to have about 30 people show up each night. Now, if we were legally allowed to drink then we would just be doing the same thing down town and would be getting ourselves into worse situations.

 

[DameGreyWulf]

The only thing I hear people talk about on Monday is how much they drank during the weekend before they pissed themselves and were carried home.

People brag because of it being illegal. It's cool.

But yes, I'm sure they would stop drinking alot of the time and only carry on maby one or two days every weekend, because believe me, there are so many people who binge every weekend simply because there is nothing else to do. I myself used to go to the same guys house every Friday (and Saturday if possible) and get drunk because he always had a free house and eventually word got round and he used to have about 30 people show up each night. Now, if we were legally allowed to drink then we would just be doing the same thing down town and would be getting ourselves into worse situations.

Why do you assume you'd be doing it down town? Why do you assume doing it down town will get yourself in a bad situation? Why do you call a private party a bad situation?

I mean, ****, you know it's bad, but assume that despite that you're going to do it downtown if it was legal? Wtf? Are you that stupid?

 

[Big_Mac]

The only thing I hear people talk about on Monday is how much they drank during the weekend before they pissed themselves and were carried home.

People brag because of it being illegal. It's cool.

But yes, I'm sure they would stop drinking alot of the time and only carry on maby one or two days every weekend, because believe me, there are so many people who binge every weekend simply because there is nothing else to do. I myself used to go to the same guys house every Friday (and Saturday if possible) and get drunk because he always had a free house and eventually word got round and he used to have about 30 people show up each night. Now, if we were legally allowed to drink then we would just be doing the same thing down town and would be getting ourselves into worse situations.

Why do you assume you'd be doing it down town? Why do you assume doing it down town will get yourself in a bad situation? Why do you call a private party a bad situation?

I mean, ****, you know it's bad, but assume that despite that you're going to do it downtown if it was legal? Wtf? Are you that stupid?

I myself hate going down town, just because of the few times I have one of my drunk friends has gotten me into a bad situation, such as fights or at least one person coming away with a black eye because he said the wrong thing to the wrong guy, same thing has happened at private parties. They themself have also have gotten bad, quite a few times, I mean the police have been callled many times and once they find an underage guy who can't get himself home they will arrest them.

Although this still isn't the best situation it will have to do, but I would seriously think alot more of this **** would happen if the age was lowered.

 

[Oyipggy]

Excessive alcohol drinking is never a problem so long as you're not an idiot. Idiocy has no age limit, so I say 18 is just fine.

But alas, I have to continue my illegal drinking.

 

[DameGreyWulf]

Big, dear, honey, sweetie, baby,
many other countries have their legal age limit 18 and lower, and they do not have teenagers dying en masse from stupidity.

Your slippery slope fallacy is baseless and invalid.

 

[Danath]

Related

Spoiler

After thousands of teens (and older, ofc) adopted the habit of drinking till they were drunk every weekend anything related to alcohol is now restricted, like smoking (no ads, fines to drinkers and seller, etc) and age for drinking got raised from 16 to 18. I mostly agree with this measures, but I think there should be a difference between drinking wine or beer and vodka/whisky/etc.

 

[DameGreyWulf]

Heheheheh. Scandinavia tridick.

 

[Big_Mac]

Well, I'm just relating to my town and in this case there are too many idiots for the legal age to be lowered, I mean we have so many cases of violence, teen pregnancies and youth binge drinking here that a lower drinking age would only make worse, and we're only the 20th worst town in the UK!

 

[DameGreyWulf]

Well, I'm just relating to my town and in this case there are too many idiots for the legal age to be lowered, I mean we have so many cases of violence, teen pregnancies and youth binge drinking here that a lower drinking age would only make worse, and we're only the 20th worst town in the UK!

And why is drinking the root of the problem for all of that? Besides the binge drinking, that is.
Why do you assume a lower age, coupled with the destruction of the "it's bad therefore cool" image, would make these worse?