What is Alcohol’s Main Effect on Us?
The myopia theory was first suggested by psychologists Claude Steele and Robert Josephs, and what they meant by myopia is that alcohol’s principal effect is to narrow our emotional and mental fields of vision. It creates, in their words, “a state of shortsightedness in which superficially [not thoroughly or deeply] understood, immediate aspects of experience have a disproportionate influence on behavior and emotion.” Alcohol makes the thing in the foreground even more salient [most noticable or important] and the thing in the background less significant. It makes short-term considerations loom large, and more cognitively demanding [requires more thinking], longer-term considerations fade away. - Gladwell, Talking to Strangers, 207
To put some of this in my own words…
Alcohol narrows our vision or thinking to where a short-term consideration or desire takes center stage over something that requires us to think more or some desire or goal that is more of a long-term consideration.
Gladwell explains how the thinking that drinking alcohol will help a person get over a bad day and “unlock” their good mood is incorrect. He points out that it’s true that sometimes drinking alcohol will cheer a person up - but sometimes it makes them more anxious, angry, or depressed.
Why the difference?
Why Does Alcohol Affect People Differently at Different Times?
Myopia theory has an answer to that puzzle: it depends on what the anxious, drunk person is doing. - Gladwell, Talking to Strangers, 208
For example, if the person is watching a football game with passionate fans at a bar, all the excitement and drama of the game will temporarily crowd out other concerns in his life - like maybe a crucial sales call tomorrow at work, a job he hates.
But if that same person is drinking alone in the corner of the bar, his anxiety about the meeting and depression from his dissatisfaction with his job will take over, and the anxiety and depression will get worse.
Drinking puts you at the mercy of your environment. It crowds out everything except the most immediate experiences. - Gladwell, Talking to Strangers, 208
Drinking alcohol does not turn you into your true self. Instead, it puts you at the mercy of whatever the most immediate experiences and pressing concerns around you are.
Alcohol Changes the Way You See Yourself.
Also, if you’re drunk - the way you see yourself changes.
Gladwell uses the example of someone who thinks he’s funny, but his friend has told him he’s not - and he should stop trying to tell funny stories. When he’s not drunk, and an opportunity to tell a funny story arises, he’ll remember what his friend said and won’t tell the story.
But alcohol changes the way you see yourself.
When that same man is drunk, the future conflict of that friend telling him again that he’s not funny will fade away. The drunk man can now believe he is actually funny.
When you are drunk, your understanding of your true self changes. - Gladwell, Talking to Strangers, 209
Gladwell discusses how we’ve had a backward understanding of what alcohol does to a person. We’ve thought that alcohol strips everything down to a person’s true essence - if you’re a generally angry person, you’ll be an angry drunk, or if you’re a generally happy person, you’ll be a happy drunk.
Alcohol Removes the Self-Restraint We Need to Make Good, Long-Term Decisions.
The kinds of conflicts that normally keep our impulses in check are a crucial part of how we form our character. All of us construct our personality by managing the conflict between immediate, near considerations and more complicated, longer-term considerations. That is what it means to be ethical or productive or responsible. The good parent is someone who is willing to temper their own immediate selfish needs (to be left alone, to be allowed to sleep) with longer-term goals (to raise a good child). When alcohol peels away those longer-term constraints on our behavior, it obliterates our true self. - Gladwell, Talking to Strangers, 209-210
What’s he saying?
That alcohol actually removes the restraints we need to make ethical, productive, responsible decisions for our lives.
We can’t just do anything and everything that appeals to us at the moment - we practice self-control. But alcohol removes the self-control necessary to make those good, long-term decisions.
Alcohol isn’t an agent of revelation. It is an agent of transformation. - Gladwell, Talking to Strangers, 210
Alcohol and Christian Living.
I believe the strongest argument from the Bible against drinking alcohol is connected to what Gladwell shared in his book.
Alcohol destroys a person’s ability to practice self-control and fades long-term decisions and commitments into the background - which is essential to everyday Christian living.
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded [self-control], set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13-16)
What is being said here?
That a “long-term” commitment - setting your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ - requires self-control.
That a “long-term” commitment - not being molded to the passions we used to embrace - requires self-control.
That a “long-term” commitment - living holy lives - requires self-control.
Alcohol removes the self-restraint and long-term vision a person needs to prepare themselves to live the Christian life.