Like the link points out, we were drinking before we had written language.

It's a matter of dealing with life on life's terms. The reality is that people like drinking. Sometimes people drink too much, and a few unlucky folks can't drink anything without risking death.

I ocne read a story about a Vietnam era war correspondent. He was a pacifist before going to cover combat and seeing combat up close made him hate war even more.

At one point a publisher asks him to contribute an article that 'deglamorizes war.'

He wrote back that deglamorizing war would be as easy as deglamorizing sex.