Sarah prayed and was given nourishment on those burning embers. Goodbye to the past, farewell to worry and fear. Open hands reach for the unknown, brightened eyes anticipate the unseen.

Malcolm Gladwell...

...did not talk about risk fallacy.

Instead he presented a discussion on the need of cultural conversations through the concept of drinking and the form it takes in different cultures that have these cultural conversations.

Malcolm Gladwell, introduced by Christina Bicchieri, Director of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program, is the 10th annual speaker for the Goldstone Forum, presented annually by the PPE program. This is also the 10th anniversary for the academic program, pointed out to be the "largest and fastest growing" academic program in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Although not an academic, as Bicchieri pointed out in her introduction, Gladwell's discussion was rooted heavily in the research done by Dr. Dwight Heath in Montero, Bolivia in 1955, as well as subsequent studies of the drinking habits of the New Haven Italian community. The two studies both concluded that alcohol did not cause disinhibition, but instead pointed to the Myopia theory in which immediate surroundings are becoming more and more important (rather than less as previously believed).

In both the native Bolivian tribe Dr. Heath studied and the New Haven Italian community there were strict rules with regards to alcohol usage, so while both drank to immense measures that would be categorized as alcoholism by American standards. However, while they drank to extremes, neither cultural group suffered the symptoms assigned to alcoholism. They were high functioning, the alcohol seemed to have no negative effects on their day to day lives (though the Bolivian tribe drank such a hard proof and at such extremes that liver damage would be an eventual consequence).

Heath and other anthropologists found that the high awareness these groups had of their situations and the cultural context drinking took in their lives was based in a clearly defined set of rules both cultures contained. The New Haven Italians, very much underrepresented in numbers of people arrested for drunkenness and those who sought treatment for alcohol abuse (for the latter figure: 40 out of the first 1200 treated), consumed the greatest amount of alcohol in the community as a whole than any other cultural group.

Gladwell brought this back to the idea of cultural conversation by pointing out that both of these cultures had clearly defined structures for drinking, which are socialized throughout their communities. In opposition, American culture points to drinking, but does not answer the questions of "How?" and "In what context?"

He argued that this cultural context goes far beyond the situation of drinking, citing an example of how Canada handled their switch to a universal health care system, in which they sought to find out what the people of the country were looking for and needed from a health care system, rather than formulating this system without the people.

One of the questioners after the lecture asked about the possibility of lowering the drinking age to 18. Gladwell gladly supported that so long as there would also be "clear attempts at building positive drinking cultures."...did not talk about risk fallacy.

Instead he presented a discussion on the need of cultural conversations through the concept of drinking and the form it takes in different cultures that have these cultural conversations.

Malcolm Gladwell, introduced by Christina Bicchieri, Director of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program, is the 10th annual speaker for the Goldstone Forum, presented annually by the PPE program. This is also the 10th anniversary for the academic program, pointed out to be the "largest and fastest growing" academic program in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Although not an academic, as Bicchieri pointed out in her introduction, Gladwell's discussion was rooted heavily in the research done by Dr. Dwight Heath in Montero, Bolivia in 1955, as well as subsequent studies of the drinking habits of the New Haven Italian community. The two studies both concluded that alcohol did not cause disinhibition, but instead pointed to the Myopia theory in which immediate surroundings are becoming more and more important (rather than less as previously believed).

In both the native Bolivian tribe Dr. Heath studied and the New Haven Italian community there were strict rules with regards to alcohol usage, so while both drank to immense measures that would be categorized as alcoholism by American standards. However, while they drank to extremes, neither cultural group suffered the symptoms assigned to alcoholism. They were high functioning, the alcohol seemed to have no negative effects on their day to day lives (though the Bolivian tribe drank such a hard proof and at such extremes that liver damage would be an eventual consequence).

Heath and other anthropologists found that the high awareness these groups had of their situations and the cultural context drinking took in their lives was based in a clearly defined set of rules both cultures contained. The New Haven Italians, very much underrepresented in numbers of people arrested for drunkenness and those who sought treatment for alcohol abuse (for the latter figure: 40 out of the first 1200 treated), consumed the greatest amount of alcohol in the community as a whole than any other cultural group.

Gladwell brought this back to the idea of cultural conversation by pointing out that both of these cultures had clearly defined structures for drinking, which are socialized throughout their communities. In opposition, American culture points to drinking, but does not answer the questions of "How?" and "In what context?"

He argued that this cultural context goes far beyond the situation of drinking, citing an example of how Canada handled their switch to a universal health care system, in which they sought to find out what the people of the country were looking for and needed from a health care system, rather than formulating this system without the people.

One of the questioners after the lecture asked about the possibility of lowering the drinking age to 18. Gladwell gladly supported that so long as there would also be "clear attempts at building positive drinking cultures."

Originally posted @ Penn Political Review

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