There is something about the cultural dimension of social problems that eludes us. When confronted with the rowdy youth in the bar, we are happy to raise his drinking age, to tax his beer, to punish him if he drives under the influence, and to push him into treatment if his habit becomes an addiction. But we are reluctant to provide him with a positive and constructive example of how to drink.

Malcolm Gladwell has a new article in the New Yorker, “Drinking Games,” examining how cultural influences shape the consumption of alcohol. As always, he gives you a few interesting tidbits to come away with (even if his conclusions can feel overdetermined).