Tillmann Prüfer is a member of the editor-in-chief of “Zeit-Magazin”.
I remember that there used to be a much more impartial approach to alcohol in the workplace. For example, it was very common to have a glass of wine at business lunches, and three when it was a good business lunch. And sometimes champagne was served right away.
If you were to order a glass of wine in the presence of business partners today, you would immediately be suspected of being a hard alcoholic. So hard that you can’t even hold a business lunch without pimping. CEOs used to boast that they made sure that certain types of wine were served in the company canteen. That would be bodily harm today.
We probably owe a lot to the alcohol. I once read that even in prehistoric times the arable land was by no means only used to grow grain for bread, but the cultivation of millet for brewing beer was an important motive. Because only when people were drunk could they negotiate with opponents, such as leaders of other clans, without killing each other right away.
In this sense, alcohol was the bringer of peace that made mankind’s first business meals possible in the first place. Only then did it become possible for larger alliances and more complex social structures to be created. In this sense, alcohol was the fuel of culture.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
In “Welt am Sonntag” I read about the new book by the philosophy professor Edward Slingerland. It’s called “Drunk – How We Sipped, Danced and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization” and is about the fact that we stumbled into civilization and danced drunk. It contains a small cultural history of drinking and examines the thesis why alcohol, as a substance that has a negative effect on almost all human abilities, was nevertheless able to accompany mankind for thousands of years.
Now there are many things that have been with mankind for quite a while, even though they are bad, such as private television or cupcakes. But with alcohol, the cultures that drank alcohol were more successful in the long run than those that stayed sober. Ultimately, according to Slingerland, alcohol helps to activate creativity, culture and community.
Only when drunk could Homo sapiens be kind to strangers. Because basically a situation like a flight in a commercial airplane is one that would have to overtax the social wealth of most living beings. But if we are slumbering in our seats, slightly drunk, we feel less stress and do not kill anyone. The only question is, how long it will be before you go to each other’s throats again at business meetings if there is nothing left to drink.
More: Motivational quotes are always correct – right?
.