Argue Hobson's Speech About Alcohol

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2008

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In 1999, millions of car accidents took place in the United States and 7% of them took place under the influence of alcohol. According to statistics, 15,786 people lost their lives in 1999 because of the consumption of alcohol. These deaths constituted approximately 38.4% of the 41,471 total traffic fatalities. Alcohol does damage to people¡¦s organs such as liver and brain. Some people argue that alcohol brings people into a pleasant mood but in reality while others argue it does nothing but act as a depressant that slows down human¡¦s reaction rate. I think irresponsibly drinking alcohol does cause problem in our society, but the effect of alcohol alone does not cause the problems as describe by the Hobson. There are few points he mentioned that I don¡¦t agree with.

First, when Hobson argues about the ¡§Liquor and the White Man,¡¨ he begs the question and being racist. Hobson attempted to use racism to state a point that alcohol affects other race more than it does to the white man.

A research made by the University of Illinois in 1978 states that it does not make any difference in different races of their brain structures or evolutions. White man are not further evolved than any other races and it takes the same time to reduce a white man to the same level as other races.

Second points that I do not agree with Hobson¡¦s speech is the ¡§Reverse the Life Principle of the Universe.¡¨ Hobson states that alcohol would have a negative effect to the evolution principle; however, alcohol does not reverse the process of evolution. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that red wine is good for the heart while the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reports one alcoholic drink a day can help reduce the risk of heart disease in middle-aged men. Most people who drink alcohol do not become savaged. A small amount of alcohol consumption will not affect human¡¦s mind, only excessive consumption will cause problems in human system.

The last topic I do not agree in Hobson¡¦s speech is about the ¡§Present-day Slave Owners.¡¨ In this argument, he states that people who buy alcohol are all as slaves as they make great amount of money for the brewers and distillers. People who drinks and purchase alcohol is different from slaves fundamentally because slaves are forced to give all their work to slave owners but people who buy alcohol only spend a small portion of their income on alcohol. Also, people will not become addicted to alcohol like it would be to cigarette or other drugs so they are not forced to purchase alcohol, but instead they purchase it as an optional item. Following Hobson¡¦s idea of ¡§present-day slave owners,¡¨ then the medical industry will also be slave owners because people will always need medicine and medicine cost a lot more than alcohol.

Some people state that there should not be a control on alcohol because in a free country such as America, they have the freedom to drink alcohol responsibly. A group of people also feel that once the government put a control on alcohol, they will not have as much chance to drink as before. Alcohol slows down people¡¦s action, often caused the traffic accidents or even abused problems. Though too much alcohol may caused the problems in our society, a little bit drink of alcohol each day will not be harm to health but helpful.