Alcoholism In 3 Societies Essay Research Paper — страница 2

  • Просмотров 310
  • Скачиваний 13
  • Размер файла 16
    Кб

only he who “makes a greater effort to fill his wine cup than to attend church” (671). The Amish usually get drunk from hard cider or wine, alcohols derived from fruits. The Amish are taught not to make spectacles of themselves in front of Englishmen. “I never saw a drunk Amishman, nor did any of the English neighbors” (669). Because of this, the Amish Alcoholic is most likely to drink alone in his home. The problem drinker is not shunned from the church but is banned from receiving communion. When the alcoholic “feels he is ready to take communion” (671), the church welcomes him back. Help for the Amish alcoholic is usually self-driven. There is no objection from the church to members with problems with alcohol joining Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). “One Amish man I

spoke with said he was a ‘better Amish’ since he joined AA” (670). This could be due to the fact that the program is based on spirituality and turning things over to a “higher power.” In fact, one AA group that held meetings near an Amish community said that almost half of it’s members were Amish, though “…they were all Amish men, no Amish women” (671). Russia, also called the Soviet Union and a number of other titles in recent years after the fall of the Communist government, consisted of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics. Soviet citizens of all types and ages find it easy to purchase alcoholic drinks, especially vodka (as the price is lowest). Vodka is liquor made from fermented potatoes. These drinks are sold everywhere, in the streets, in boots, bars, and

“drink stands called ‘green sentry boxes’” (Field 106). In the Soviet Union there is a “close relationship between housing conditions and the consumption of alcohol” (Sosnovy 219). As dwelling space decreases, the spending on alcohol increases. Hard drinking seems to be most widespread through soviet manual workers. “Apparently it is considered a sign of manliness…” (Field 103). Alcohol consumption produces a negative impact on their output at work. Products are not made as well, production falls, employees are often absent, and this often lead to them being demoted or even fired. Though it seems to be most common in lower sectors of society, “…Gladkov points out that…people in all walks of Soviet culture drink to excess” (103). The author of one article

describes the scene at a Moscow hotel dining room. He compares the number of drinks to “just as many as at American college fraternity dances” (MacDuffie 34). He observed that there were more “drunks” in Moscow itself than other parts of the country. There is no mention made of “AA” or any such rehabilitation programs, but of “Turkish bath treatments” which are one-night compulsory treatments for drunkards that are arrested in public. The Soviet Ministry of health, however, is trying to help remedy toe problem by implementing a number of programs, including “demonstrations of the harmful consequences of Alcohol for the human organism” (Field 107). Alcoholism is a problem all over the world in different cultures. Even in cultures, like the Amish, where

Americans probably assume that it would not be an issue. People become alcoholics for social and cultural reasons and possibly because of genetics. In all three cultures, the Alcoholism tends to run in families; many children of alcoholics end up alcoholics themselves. Usually these children of alcoholics grow up to marry alcoholics and create the same stressful factors they had in their childhood, passing on their alcoholic genes to their children. Field, Mark G. Alcoholism, Crime, and Delinquincy in Soviet Society. Social Problems, 3 (1955-1956): 100-109. Huntingdon, Abbie Gertrude Endes. Dove athe Window; a study of an Old Order Amish Community in Ohio. New hven: Yale University, 1956. MacDuffie, Marshall. The Red Carpet: 10,000 Miles through Russia on a Visa from Khruschev.

New York: Norton, 1955. Sosnovy, Timothy. The Housing Problem in the Soviet Union. New York: Research Program on the USSR, 1954.