Camille Paglia is just weird. I was prepared to consider her argument for doing away with the requirement that people be 21 years old before they can legally purchase alcohol, but she just used her space to write an incoherent rant. The sole point she made that has any salience is that other countries seem to do better at avoiding the problems associated with alcohol consumption by making it less of a taboo for children. Other than that, though, her argument was very uneven. I don’t think youngsters are using more pills today because they can’t sit in a dive-bar at 19 and drink Pabst Blue Ribbon. I don’t think doctors are overprescribing medications because kids aren’t drinking enough. I don’t think the fact that people are having traffic accidents while texting is in any way an argument for letting teenagers buy vodka.
I don’t understand why she manages to make a living as a writer. Everything she writes is stupid. Maybe we should consider lowering the drinking age, but she certainly didn’t make the case for it.
