The Descent of Tragedy
If you've ever dialed 911 on a Saturday night you know that what the dispatcher wants to know is (if it is not a medical emergency); 1. are guns (weapons), or 2. open liquor (alcohol), involved? If neither of the above, your call will be transferred, where you may wait until daybreak for an answer.
The social consequences of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms are so dire, as to require a federal department to monitor commerce in these dangerous substances alone. If we learned one thing from Prohibition, it is that they cannot be eliminated -not by legislation, anyway. And yet, they are the basic ingredients of violent crime.
As a college student, the representation of violence - as opposed to the real thing - was a topic of philosophical debate. "Drama," as everyone knows, is common speech used to disparage personal issues as irrelevant. The opposing point of view, then, rallied around the question "when does drama cross the line of actual, actionable, criminal violence?"
Rest assured, good readers (who would never do such a thing), that false 911 calls can be traced, and are taken very seriously by law enforcement. One must always consider (as the philosopher Descartes would put it), that one may not always know that one's actions are not within the law. The academic question of what is real, and what is not, therefore becomes one of critical importance.
Nietzsche famously postulated the opposing Apollonian and Dionysian ways of life -and art. My understanding of this proposition is that the importance of wine in Western Civilization cannot be overestimated. It is an essential ingredient of the Holy Sacrament. It is, at once, outside the law -and is a Taboo.
To give just one example (and the most positive that I can think of), consider how different history would be without the drinking toast, that affirmation of unity represented by the raised glass of wine. Wine is the essential ingredient of unity -as food is for friendly ties. It is the spirit made flesh and blood. It is offered "to health."
The dedication toast must be offered according to specific rules. It must be wine that is offered -in a glass. Water is unacceptable. It has negative connotations. Likewise grape juice, and other wine look-alike liquids, may not be substituted. Because let us be frank with one another. Shared intoxication - by alcohol - is proof of commitment. Intoxication reveals the self we normally hide from each other.
An exception to the wine toast is made for teetotalers. A toast may be made with an empty glass. Doing so can raise commitment to an even higher standard. It says, "It is not the wine, but the spirit, that matters." The Grail quest of legend was doomed to failure without perfect dedication on the part of the aspirant. Winning the cup was deemed to be the highest attainment one might seek -and one fraught with danger.
Materially, wine is made (not grown or found). It is a product of work. More, it is an example of "surplus value." It is not a necessity like food. We take the products of fermentation for granted because of their wide availability. But take, for example, the Indians of North America. To them, fermentation was unknown, and intoxication by liquor came as a complete surprise when introduced by white settlers.
It seems fermentation was not discovered by anyone until humans discovered agriculture, abandoning their foraging ways and, soon thereafter, wine making. The culture of trading in commodities followed production, with the need for containers of every description, including fired, glazed pots for storing and distributing wine and, of course, fine cups -the only civilized way to consume wine.
Of artistic interest, then, are the decorations applied to kiln-fired, glazed wine pots and cups, such as, for instance, those Greek amphorae and drinking kraters, embellished with scenes depicting the myths of the gods and heroes of pagan civilization. And presiding over all this whirl of activity sits the figure of Bacchus-Dionysus, god of wine, and divine patron of the arts.