Counter-Currents
British television presenter Adrian Chiles
1,837 words
Not too long ago I got an app for my streaming service that features British TV shows, which led to me developing an obsession with reality shows featuring poverty-stricken Englishmen and their troubles.
Naturally, I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of voyeurism and judging.
Please don’t judge me, though. I’ve discovered a great deal of advice about how to cut down on drinking. It hits close to home. While I’ve never gotten a DUI, passed out in an alleyway, or been arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct, I can only shudder when looking at these poverty-stricken Englishman with piles of empty beer cans in the corner. “There but for the grace of God go I.”
I didn’t really drink until I was in the US Army. The military’s institutional culture encourages boozing it up. (Instead of spa we’ll drink brown ale!) My army drinking didn’t turn into a major problem. As my responsibilities grew, I found it wise to drink less and less. Eventually, I stopped going to bars altogether, and I didn’t drink at all in the Middle East.
It was when I returned from my last combat deployment and started doing business as a civilian that I feel my drinking monster came into being. It seemed that the men who didn’t go to Vietnam but afterward wished they had were always putting a drink in my hand, wanting to hear about the desert. It sort of went to my head, I suppose.
My proverbial moment of clarity came several years ago. I had been sipping wine throughout the day, and it later was time to go to a social event. I’d justified the day-drinking because I’d mowed the lawn that morning. I muddled through the event, saying as little as possible to hide the fact that I was slurring my words and trying not to barf.
After that, I started to think about cutting down on drinking. British TV is helpful on that count — American TV doesn’t have many programs about alcohol abuse. There may be too many lingering issues related to Prohibition for such a genre to reemerge from its fin de siècle crypt. The British had no Prohibition, so they have no history of replacing one vice with the vices of gangsterism and Chicago-style shootouts.
Britain in general and England in particular have developed an alcohol problem, likely due to overlapping changes to British life. In the past, the British mostly drank in pubs, where the landlord had an obligation under the Dram Shop Acts to ensure people didn’t get too drunk. Then British ale was replaced by more potent European styles: lager and Pilsner. Then, after Britain started to regain prosperity after the austerity of the World Wars, British tourists traveled to the Continent and got a taste for wine.
Grocery stores started to stock up on wine and the British started to drink it at home where there was no Dram Shop restriction. Wine can also be purchased in a box, so the drinker can’t really tell how much he is putting away and there’s a great deal of wine in the box. The percentage of alcohol in wine has likewise increased. But it’s not just wine. All types and quantities of alcohol can be purchased everywhere, and the prices — especially in England — are spiraling downwards. English shoppers can even buy booze in a plastic two-liter bottle.
The problems with alcohol are well known. People do and say stupid things when drunk. Alcohol damages the liver, causes heartburn, makes it difficult to sleep, increases the risk of an accident of some sort, raises blood pressure, makes a person gain weight, and gives the drinker a hangover. The more a person drinks, the more likely their life will end earlier than non-drinkers.
Alcohol can be good, too. It’s a social lubricant. It tastes good, makes you see things from a new perspective, and can make you happy for a time. Red wine also has tannins, which can help the body. Drinking together bonds people socially. After taking over a platoon with considerable internal disagreements among the enlisted men, I sought some advice from an old soldier. He said: “arrange a drinking party.” I did, and the problems evaporated.
You can buy It’s Okay to Be White: The Best of Greg Johnson here.
Drinkers Like Me
There are a good many British shows about alcohol use in Northern England. Ross Kemp produced a documentary about alcohol abuse in Sunderland that featured drunken men yelling at hospital staff. I discovered recently that Our Cops in the North is entertaining and it documents some drinking issues, although those issues were less highlighted than poaching, assault, and murder.
There is probably some sort of internal-to-England snobbery in those shows that I sense but don’t understand. Is there some kind of Northumbrians in the Mist kick that Londoners get out of these shows? I admit, watching the pathetic drunks talking to the social worker from “The Council” makes me feel better about myself, so I’m colluding in this attitude should it exist.
The best British TV documentary about drinking is by Adrian Chiles. Mr. Chiles is an English radio presenter, TV personality, and “English Football” (i.e. soccer) announcer. From what I can gather from interviews and news reports about him online, he suffered a bout of anxiety after being fired from a morning show called Daybreak in 2011. Following that event, he seems to have done some self-reflection and produced Drinkers Like Me in 2018.
Drinkers Like Me is quite possibly the most interesting study on alcohol abuse I’ve ever watched. It has none of the scolding, Protestant schoolmarmism represented by the likes of Carry A. Nation that Americans get. Instead, it analyzes every aspect of drinking from a fun perspective. Chiles’s drinking has caused him to carry more weight, has given him some moderate, but reversible, liver damage, as well as heartburn. Needless to say, Chiles was drinking well over the recommended limits.
British health experts have altered their guidelines about drinking. One should now only drink fourteen units of alcohol per week — roughly equal to six pints of beer, seven shots (doubles), or a bottle and a half of wine, respectively.
Chiles is not alone in his drinking. The British public buys double the amount of alcohol they admit to drinking. Liver disease is way up in England. Alcohol is at the bottom of a great many social ills. Chiles raises an interesting question about why people don’t seek treatment for alcoholism:
There’s a bit of a battle between those who believe in the binary “disease” model of alcohol misuse and those who see it as more of a continuum. The belief in the former, binary model is the one most commonly held. It goes like this: there is a condition called alcoholism, which is essentially a disease. If you have this disease — whether you were born with it or acquired it — all hope of moderation is in vain; abstinence is your only option. The ubiquity of this view is probably because it is the credo of Alcoholics Anonymous, which, to be fair, has been a lot of help to a lot of people.
But,
. . . there is the issue of problem recognition. . . . If you have been led to believe that you either have or haven’t got this “drinking disease,” then it’s relatively easy to give yourself a clean bill of health. After all, you will reason, you are not drinking Pernod with your breakfast, or sleeping on a park bench, and you can do without a drink for days on end, so you are not afflicted by the “disease.” Furthermore, your understanding is that, were you to be “diagnosed” with the disease, you would never be allowed to drink again, a prospect that quietly terrifies you. And perhaps you don’t want to be lumbered with the stigma of being labelled an alcoholic. So, suitably discouraged, you don’t seek help, and on you go, not seeing the need to change anything.
In other words, one could be in trouble and not know it, even if one is as highly successful as Adrian Chiles.
Ways to Reduce
When I first decided to cut back on alcohol, I got a scrap of paper, put it on my work desk, and made a tally mark for every day I didn’t drink. With six months of tally marks on the paper, Thanksgiving came around and my mother-in-law sent a bottle of my favorite scotch for Christmas. Since I don’t wish to get in yet another domestic battle with the spouse, the countdown goes back to zero. But blaming this on the women of my family is a cheap shot. There is plenty of opportunity to cheat — and I’ve done it — and the countdown restarts. It’s demoralizing.
Adrian Chiles’s philosophy is to be a moderating drinker. He argues that the goal is to fully enjoy each drink, not throw ‘em back until your teeth are numb and you start saying “I love you maaaan” to your mates. His main trick is to count one’s drinks. He has an app on his cell phone that records his units. Simply keeping track helped him cut back.
Another British alcohol reducer is Liz Hemingway. She has written several books about alcohol and argues for total abstinence. She says when the temptation to imbibe comes around, she says a prayer about self-forgiveness and taps her hand and head. I’ve tried this and it really works.
A few other tricks that I’ve come up with that are in line with the ideas developed above are to only buy alcohol I like the most and never in a big bottle. I only drink during certain times and situations now. I only imbibe if the household budget is in balance, there is no chance for me to be Mr. Taxi Driver for anyone in my family, all the work is done, and I have no possible risk of getting into a drunken argument with some other person.
Other tricks include not buying rounds. With rounds at a bar, one could get in a situation where one must drink socially and most drinks are purchased by someone else. Don’t stand up and drink, or more importantly, have a surface to put one’s drink on. Apparently “vertical drinkers” drink quicker. Slowing down helps.
Ultimately, we are engaged in a struggle to save our people on both sides of the pond. To do so requires we raise a family and make money — indeed, monetize as much of our time as possible.
One cannot do this as well hungover.
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25 comments
What a great, honest essay ! Thank you. … As a young soldier I also used to overly use alcohol with others which eventually developed into a sort of unhealthy drinking culture. Humorous events eventually turn into violence, problems with law enforcement and the eventual loss of friends and family.
Thankfully, as I got older I naturally began to drink less and less, and now can enjoy a few drinks without wanting or feeling the to abuse it. I also do not like the AA model, although as you say it has helped many. I believe in learning how to enjoy alcohol responsibly without any guilt. My wife also was involved in NA over 20 years ago, and has been sober ever since, but again, these organisations can often seem like a cult which just replaces one vice with another. Anyway, thanks again for the honesty.
I joined the Army to get away from alcohol and simply became a more disciplined alcoholic, not the kind that can control his drinking. It obviously led to problems. I remember my well intentioned First Sergeant telling me that it’s o.k. to have one drink. After an one particular incident, he didn’t believe my roommate and I when we told him that drinking a case of beer in a couple of hours could be a one man endeavor. So it goes.
Getting straight has been a prolonged affair. I had to learn the hard way that the “disease” model and the attendant 12 Step Recovery Industry have considerable flaws which can prove deadly for some. All that I can say is that my time on the roads in Afghanistan was a cakewalk compared to the morass of confusion, much of it self imposed, which I’ve encountered since. Ours is not a healthy society and many folks like me (white working class) are simply slipping away for lack of means and meaning within their lives. Following the path of least resistance and rolling with the crowd these days is a recipe for trouble. The idea that I’m more privileged than members of the multicultural elite never fails to raise my hackles. I should thank them because their utter hypocrisy makees me want to live with as much force, meaning and conviction as I can muster. The one thing which they can’t control is moxie and mockery. Don’t let the f***ers see you sweat, give em the biggest grin possible. Thanks to the author for this.
” The idea that I’m more privileged than members of the multicultural elite never fails to raise my hackles.”
I know how you feel. I’ve come to the point where I just don’t care about what those hypocrites say or do – they are just repetitive noise in the background. Take care and be well. …
I’ve really made an effort to cut back and get myself into fighting shape. It’s been a success so far. Heard a great saying about drinking once that really summed it up, “One is too many, two is never enough”
I see the BBC link to ‘Drinker’s Like me’ by Adrian Chiles is unavailable in the US, but can easily be viewed on YT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX2opvj7WE8
I found that my urge to drink was reduced using various nootropics.
That’s very interesting. Were you aware of a correlation before using them ?
I can’t do it – the more I watch British TV, the more I drink. I may just have to give up watching British TV.
How can I get that British app?
Get a VPN and pretend that you’re a Brit!
Alcohol: the cause of, and the solution to many White problems.
I enjoyed this article very much. My danger zone is 4 – 6:00, PM, the happy hour time. I wake up early and accomplish virtually all I want to do in a day early on. When 4:00 rolls around I want a drink. It’s not that I drink too much at one time – that I’ve stopped doing – it’s the frequency; I’m faced with trying not to make it every day. I’m not an alcoholic; I just like to drink. Haha . . . I’m with Aristotle: everything in moderation. Frank Sinatra once said, “I pity people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as it’s gonna get.” Okay, there are many more satisfactions that are far better than liquor. Still, it’s a part of civilized like . . . . How to manage it?
Some formulas I’ve come up with: First, the optimum number of drinks. Diminishing marginal utility definitely occurs after the third drink, so stop there. Second, an even stricter calculation recommends itself. Like buying lottery tickets, the gain from buying 1 to 2, or any increment thereof, is negligible. However, the distance from 0 to 1 is infinite. Better to have one lottery ticket than none. But don’t become subject to the stupid tax and buy a few. Similarly, having one drink as opposed to having no drink at all might just be the ticket.
I drank a lot in the desert during my deployment because it was one of the only things to do except my job. Fortunately I put the drinking habit down more than a decade ago. One interesting thing I learned is that alcohol does not taste good. Not at all. What it does well however is bring out (extract) the hidden flavors in other things through its nature as a powerful solvent. Inside the human organism, these transformative effects are catastrophic.
“One interesting thing I learned is that alcohol does not taste good. Not at all” – I think this is what has kept me away from alcohol my entire life. It just doesn’t taste good. I never thought it tasted better than a Pepsi. Even in high school when I would go to parties, I would walk around with a beer in my hand, but by the end of the night I had at the most maybe two sips from it.
Oh, it tastes good, alright. Depends what you drink and how much it costs, really.
Doesn’t taste good? Good God man, haven’t you ever had a $17 Godiva Martini, made with a high-end vodka like Ketel One? It’s like having liquid German Chocolate cake that makes you feel transparent, like a ghost, from the effect of the vodka, the taste of which is completely undetectable. I had four of these on one occasion, years ago, which was also the last occasion. It’s drinking events like these, as expressed in the ‘90s song by Lit, “My Own Worst Enemy” (“And I, Came in through the window last night…”) that forced a rethinking of my drinking habits two decades ago.
Great essay! I have to drink alone most of the time because my son is too young and my wife doesn’t drink. That vertical drinking statement rings very true for me. I have been prone to extra quick drinking when at business conferences with the cocktail party after the days activities. All the gabbing and hand shakes lead to copious amounts of free booze as a prelude to wine with dinner. Also have to be careful of the helpful staff with booze, my poison being champagne, at the ready to fill you up every time you get near empty. Thanks for the fine piece and for not lecturing. The tips are sound quite useful indeed.
Just KNOW your limits and stick to them. Ninety-six ounces of ca. 7% beer is mine. I have to experiment with anything else.
After thirty years in law enforcement (now retired), I have come to the conclusion that nothing good comes from alcohol. Practically every domestic violence call, family dispute, neighbor squabble, and petty theft I was dispatched to handle involved alcohol (narcotics too). Every fight that broke out at a family picnic invariably had alcohol at its root.
I’ve seen officers and superiors get demoted and even fired because they couldn’t put down the bottle.
I’ve learned that nothing good comes from alcohol. Oh sure, there are some people who can use it in moderation, but they seem to be very few indeed. Everyone, it seems to me, abuses it badly. Not only does it make one do and say really stupid things, but its disastrous to one’s health. If you want to look old really fast, just start a regular regime of alcohol. The stuff is poison.
And all this happy horse manure about the healthy benefits of wine is in large measure just propaganda from the wine industry. Along with those so-called ‘benefits’ comes a whole lot of other problems.
If our people are going to turn things around in terms of our demographic demise, it has got to at least involve sobriety. Alcohol promotes poor judgment no matter how much one tries to justify its use among us. And the last thing we need in our movement is more poor judgment.
Drinking culture is indeed a problem in the north of England, especially amongst the white working class. I used to work with someone who’d think nothing of downing twenty cans on a Wednesday night and still somehow he’d make it in to work the next day, on time!
I think it’s down to some kind of spiritual poverty plus the general misery of being white and working class living in post industrial towns. But one thing I’ve noticed in my experience is that it mostly affects people of a certain age. Gen X and boomers all seem to be heavy boozers but millenials consume weed far more.
As for myself, I never aquired a drinking habit despite coming from a family of heavy and regular drinkers. I think because when I was a teenager I never leant to moderate so it always turned into a binge and then some kind of disaster every time. I can do without that.
The generational drinking gap between Boomers and Xers on one side and Millennials (and probably GenZ) on the other is the same in America. My Millennial nieces and their friends never needed lecturing on drunk driving, etc.
And these people who can drink 20 and get up for work the next day and function-what in bloody hell are they made of? Genetic studies need to be done on this capacity to resist hangovers that make most want to jump off a roof. They must have inherited this trait. It seems miraculous.
“I have a drinking problem? F you, you’re a Mormon, compared to you we all have a drinking problem.”
https://youtu.be/87FsY2bh1No
That’s awesome. I need to watch that movie.
Scotland has made some inroads into trying to tackle the problem:
https://www.gov.scot/policies/alcohol-and-drugs/minimum-unit-pricing/
‘There is probably some sort of internal-to-England snobbery in those shows that I sense but don’t understand. Is there some kind of Northumbrians in the Mist kick that Londoners get out of these shows?’ The Northern and Southern English hate each other, analogous to the top and bottom halves of the USA. The Southern English, i.e. London and the south east, look upon people the further north you go as wretches. The Northern English look upon the southerners as snobby, effete, poofy, pretentious wretches – and they are right.
England basically just encompasses London to Londoners and the Westminster inbred vermin. They don’t care about anybody else in the UK, especially the working classes, whom they would just as soon see dead. And the Southern vermin are cokeheads and boozers too, so there is no real schadenfreude in watching Northerners suck it down and fuck themselves up, but it’s just that the Southern vermin with money like to laugh at the poor. The French had the right idea during their Revolution.
Interesting article. I find it really funny someone joined the army to get away from drinking. That’s a howl, as the military is booze Valhalla. When I was in Germany in the 70’s, my unit crawled with boozers.
back then, we even had beer machines in the ‘all volunteer’ army.
I remember my Barracks always smelled of liquor and vomit.
I never drank when younger, and my mother being an alcoholic sobered my views on it, although I drank a lot of beer in Germany…good stuff, and American beer is like piss compared to it, but I do like Sam Adams.
Germans always thought American GIs didn’t know how to control their liquor, and once, when the police were called in, they went to a gasthaus across the street for a beer before going back on patrol. Germans thought nothing of drinking on duty.
I’m 68, and have one beer a week and maybe a glass of wine with a meal. That’s all, and I’m satisfied. My mother recovered from alcoholism, and she was very angry when people said alcoholism was ‘a disease.’
As for drinking in England, the north/south conflict got transferred to America. In his book Albion’s Seed, David Hackett-Fischer argued American settlement was determined by regions migrating from England, bringing their mores with them. The northerners went west, and eastern England made up the puritans/New England. The south mostly settled by southern England’s ‘distressed cavaliers’, you can see these regional conflicts transplanted in America. Same with drinking patterns.
A very fascinating book.
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