A quick glance through New York Magazine recently informed me that Dec. 5 marked the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition. The article highlights the historical drink menu at a much-celebrated Greenwich Village restaurant that once upon a time was a glamorous speakeasy. While I am all for commemorating the notable repeal of the 18th amendment, I cannot say that it is something that I think about all that often. For most of us, alcohol has always been a legal substance for those over 21, and envisioning what society would be like without that liberty is beyond the imagination of some.
Having just finished celebrating my own personal legality — and that of most of my friends — this anniversary prompts me to reflect on the wider implications of our current system. What would life be like if alcohol were illegal for everyone?
After a minute or two, I realize that it is not too much of a stretch to get a sense of what it might be like. I just have to rewind six months (to when I was 20) and visualize the social environment found on many college campuses across America — no fedoras or chin-length bobs necessary. Depending on
how you look at it, we might just have our very own little Prohibition-esque bubble on the Medford-Somerville crossing.
Imagine: It's a Friday night in 1923, and a well-attended speakeasy is abruptly raided by federal Prohibition agents. The people (in this case, flappers and the mafia for the sake of historical clichés) flee, the owners get in some kind of trouble and the place is shut down. The partygoers most likely know another place, probably around the corner, to continue their saga. The speakeasy moves locations the next week, and the thrill of the forbidden fruit gets that much sweeter.
Flash forward to 2008. It's a Friday night, and well-attended festivities at a house, frat or dorm are interrupted by the police. The partygoers flee, the hosts are written up, fined or reprimanded in some way, and the party is shut down. There are probably festivities still in full-force (with beverages) across campus, down the road or maybe even down the hallway. The determination of university co-eds to become inebriated is quite astonishing and is further evidence that where there's a will, there's a way.
In New York City during Prohibition, 52nd Street between 5th and 6th Avenues was nicknamed "Swing Street" due to the 30 speakeasies located there. Remind anyone of Professors Row (not that I am implying that professors are like swingers – no, definitely not)? Seniors and all those over 21 on and around campus play the role of Canada — special arrangements are often made to obtain contraband goods with little border control. And while the dodgy jungle juice served at some campus parties isn't quite moonshine, the potent concoctions are often reminiscent of bathtub spirits. Perhaps the risk of sudden blindness is not imminent, but projectile vomiting might be.
Our very own President Lawrence Bacow has signed on to the Amethyst Initiative, along with 133 other university presidents, to support opening up discussion about lowering the legal drinking age. Conceivably, this suggests that some recognize campuses do indeed have the potential to set up environments that breed Roaring Twenties-like behavior. Temperance failed then, and it fails now.
The existence of a restrictive measure (in this case, federal drinking age laws) creates an atmosphere on college campuses that can and often does cause unintended consequences. During the 1920s, the ban on alcohol supposedly increased crime and promiscuity and fostered a general sense of looseness, while in current times it manifests itself through binge-drinking, hazardous behavior and well … a general sense of looseness (heck, we are all about to go run around naked en masse).
For many students, alcohol is still illegal, a fact that leads to a strong desire to seek out that which is restricted. A little thing called the "intoxication instinct" theorizes that as human beings, we innately look for ways to alter our state of being and consciousness. Some might say that we are just up against human evolution, but there are most likely other factors contributing to the sheer magnitude and frequency of alcohol consumption in college.
One might also contend that a certain social climate did exist at the time of Prohibition that may resemble parts of current campus cultures. As young people, we are inevitably attempting to gain a better sense of ourselves, our values and our place in this world. Overall it is a somewhat unnerving time filled with insecurities and challenges, whether we like to recognize our collective self-consciousness or not.
We like to experiment, we might rebel and we will most likely test the boundaries of our own bodies, free will and autonomy. We have grown up in a somewhat fast-paced, disconnected, instant-gratification-seeking era, and now we are often caught in the illusive ambiguity of what it means to be a "young adult." Perhaps as in the 1920s, a method for coping with our current situation is thinly disguised in drinking profuse amounts of alcohol and calling it a roaring-good time.
We have certainly lost much of the glamour that appears to have characterized the time of Prohibition, but I am not sure how much of the mindset, particularly on college campuses, has progressed when it comes to alcohol some 75 years later. I don't know if there is a solution, but I do know that I wouldn't mind hanging out with Jay Gatsby for a day. If we were to anthropomorphize The End of Prohibition, we could all toast to him together — Happy 75th anniversary.
