They're persistent, I'll give them that

[slowfox]

Following on from last week's brush with evangelising Americans... they were back, yesterday. Last week's guy had the genuine Million Dollar Smile™, this guy's smile was just a couple of cents shy of that high water mark, but he still had his 'Jesus Christ our Saviour' name badge:

Evangelising American: Hey, how are you today?

slowfox: I'm an atheist. Thanks. Bye.

Evangelising American: Why ever would you be one of them?

slowfox: Why would I not? Thanks. Bye.

Evangelising American: But have you tried prayer?

slowfox: ...

What we have here is a failure to communicate: I don't believe in God. Ergo, it's extremely unlikely that I would feel moved to offer prayers to a concept that I don't subscribe to.

I get a similar thing for being teetotal:

slowfox: I don't drink alcohol.

Other Party: What? Ever

slowfox: Nope, never have done. Hope never to do so.

Other Party: *slowly, in deductive fashion* So you've never been drunk...? Ever?

Comments

[glittertine]

Yes, that, exactly. It's not that we can't drink, or, well, the guys mostly, anyway. But the attitude is different, it's about enjoying the yummy alcohol, rather than the ZOMG MUST GET DRUNK. Most people who do go to the Oktoberfest are doing so to have fun, meet people, enjoy the atmosphere, have a beer. People who go to the pub in the evening just go there for a bit to see a mate, not to get drunk.

Obviously, there *is* the younger set, and the youngish less educated set, who *do* do the whole WOHOO Al-oholYAYsway thing. There are concerns about youth drinking and it is getting worse, despite extra taxes on stuff that specifically targets the young, like Bacardi Breezers etc.. But nowhere near the level of Britishness. Personally, I think it's still to do with the attitude of having to get drunk as fast as possible before the last call, which we simply never had over here, so there wasn't ever a need for speed.

[slowfox]

I made my decision to be teetotal whilst still at primary school. So I was ten years old or younger... and that was not an academic decision at the time, since peers were drinking then.

Drinking age in the UK was/is 18, but by secondary school it was taken as read that if you were 13 or over, you drank. And the whole furtiveness (must not get caught!)/badge of honour (I drank 13 pints and am still standing!) thing that revolved around all this meant that there was a... competitiveness to the whole endeavour that sort of, I think, set the tone for how people faced alcohol as they went on.

[glittertine]

Yup, that's exactly what I heard about how this thing works in Britain. It makes no sense to me at all. :( Ten. *SHUDDER* Thirteen pints!! I doubt I could drink thirteen pints if my life depended on it.

We started "drinking" at around 13-14, as well. But it was all under the control of our parents, who bought the alcohol for us and were *there* at parties, there was hardly ever truly unsupervised drinking - so no problem with getting caught! And there only ever *was* drinking for occassions, never just any day. In my school, it may have been cool to "drink", but it really wasn't cool to be so pissed as to lose all self-control. No badges of honour, there. The quantities and regularity of drinking changed somewhat when we could buy our own alc, at 16 for beer/wine/breezers, at 18 for everything else, but even then, the line between cool and uncool was firmly drawn at someone starting to throw up. Not knowing when to stop to prevent atricious behaviour and throwing up was frowned at. I dunno - do you think it would be fair to say about your peers that it was not a good party if nobody was throwing up? Here, it just wasn't a good party if someone was throwing up.

But maybe I should not overgeneralise - obviously, this is my middle-class, city-based German experience. It might be different in other social environs and on the country-side.

[slowfox]

I dunno - do you think it would be fair to say about your peers that it was not a good party if nobody was throwing up? Here, it just wasn't a good party if someone was throwing up.

Absolutely! Comments would run like 'X's party was fantastic! Z was absolutely paraletic, and X threw up all over his mum's sofa! Also, quality was a direct function of the number of empty bottles that had to be disposed of in the morning.

But then, I'm talking about mid-80s, middle class kids' parties, and information is secondhand (from the post-party chatter at school the following day, or via my brother, who was in exactly that kind of crowd).

[glittertine]

No wonder you made that decision and stayed with it. Personally, I did that with smoking. Never tried, never will, it's icky and I simply never felt cowed in the slightest by peer pressure. Though to be fair, there was hardly any peer pressure in the first place.

[slowfox]

Oh, I'm the same about smoking too (and again, then, the opposite to my brother in that regard).

The one time when I was subject to peer pressure to smoke was in France - Rouen, actually - we were there on a school exchange, and the Brit kids were all skulking around the edge of the French school's playground, smoking (very few of them were old enough to smoke, legally, but they'd all been doing so for years by that point). This was the *cool* crowd, and for some reason, because my exchange partner was in a group of people who their exchange partners were in, we'd all been thrown together.

And for about a second, I actually considered accepting the offer of a cigarette from The Cool Bloke of the Year. And I mean about a second. But reason soon caught up with me: they didn't like me, and I'm sure it was offered more in the interests of sport (let's see what Ralph does) than in any spirit of generosity.

[glittertine]

Urgh. Kids. I hate social structures of teenagers. I'm so glad I am not one anymore! Glad you were smart enough not to fall for it (not that I think the smoking would have killed you, but giving in to those people always sucks). Yay for your young self!