Happy Hour: Social Clubbing, Networking, and just hanging Loose

The bar is lined up two and three deep. Voices are raised in good cheer as round after round of beer and other forms of spirits in different glasses are hoisted in cheer. It is ‘Happy Hour’; the drinks are half priced; the appetizers half priced, encouraging excessive drinking and eating; and tills Kkkkkchinging constantly gobble up the money proffered in grubby, and at times unsteady hands.

Welcome to the world of the average worker in the United States. These houses of good cheer act as psychiatrists’ couches; they are the interludes in the crowded subways of the modern workers lives. Here the great herd of workers—men and women—spend a little time sharing their thoughts; sharing their grievances; and unburdening their souls to anyone willing to listen to them. This is their comfort spot; this is the place for social clubbing, for both those who have a job and those who don’t; this is the place to hide from problems that need to be swept away in the bottom of beer mugs, wine coolers or other spirits. Alcohol—substance abuse that is ‘IN,’ because the lobby is in; alcohol that can be advertised openly on electronic and print media as long as the caveat: “Please drink responsibly,” is printed on the containers. Right! And the students on campus follow that to the letter; right, the morose, depressed, and others who drink to excess, never take it out on their family or kill people in countless accidents; right, they act responsibly because they are told to act responsibly. Am I crazy, or is the world wacky?

When the family hour was replaced by ‘Happy Hour,’ culture took a different turn. Somewhere down the line; the family became truncated; somewhere down the line; we forgot to communicate with our children; somewhere down the line, the term husband or wife got swallowed up by the all engulfing spouse—whatever the hell that means.

When communication breaks down; when we do not measure up to success; when we cannot have the perceived ‘American Dream’ of a two-car-garage home; we take solace in the easy way out—the bottle and the company of strangers that act as standby friends.

We had family and friends, when we had ‘Blue Laws.’ When ‘Blue Laws’ were enacted stores could remain open on all holidays and weekends. This effectively destroyed family life. I say, if you want to have a better and more understanding society, repeal these laws. These laws were created to pander to the greed of corporate America at the cost of family life.

Riaz Sahibzada