The Ascent of Non-Alc: An Ethnobotanical Perspective
In the indigenous worldview, plants - as with all life forms - are viewed as sovereign beings. Often referred to as ‘helpers’ or ‘allies’, the kinship between the plant and animal kingdom is instinctively understood. When a problem arises, there is a plant to support - willow bark for pain, coca leaf for altitude sickness, cacao for fatigue, and so on.
As with all relationships, needs and dynamics evolve over time. In periods of stress and turbulence, we may seek out plants / substances that ground us. In periods of pain, we may seek out plants / substances that numb us, and so on. We see this playing out across history - through opioid epidemics, psychedelic renaissances, even the rise of coffee culture during the industrial revolution. The plants / substances that a society favours can tell us a lot about what that society values.
Cut to today. In a world that requires us to speed up, to become thoughtless agents of production, perhaps it’s unsurprising that plants like sugarcane, coffee, and (in some cases) cocaine have come to dominate both our minds and economies.
And when, at the end of the day that speed becomes too much, when the mind races out of control, alcohol is the comfort blanket. Gently dismantling the thoughts and reassembling them into a shape that resembles something more bearable. Which is, of course, both the transformative beauty of this liquid, and the thorn in its side.
What happens then when the system that underpins this pattern of consumption is questioned? What happens when speed, growth, productivity - the gods that we worship - are challenged?
When a generation begins to see through the cracks of capitalism. When they bear witness to the damage that a perpetual growth mindset has wrought upon the environment. When the world is concrete, and divinity is nowhere to be found. What plants might help us?
The well documented rise in popularity of entheogens (meaning to experience god, or the divine within) is one of several potential answers. In modern Western civilisation, where ‘god is dead and we have killed him’, as Nietzsche famously put it, perhaps it’s no coincidence that people are increasingly seeking out plants that promise mystical experiences. Experiences that expand us beyond to soothe us within. Or the sudden explosion of adaptogenic drinks and supplements, now flooding our social feeds with their promises of restoration and balance.
There are no doubt many reasons that people appear to be drinking less – wellbeing, finances – reasons far more tactical than the ones that I am laying out. Though this shift towards more conscious consumption instinctively feels symptomatic of something larger.
Perhaps we’ve reached a point in late-stage capitalism where there’s no choice but to re-evaluate the lives we are living, and our relationship with the plants / substances that fuel them. Perhaps, in moderating our alcohol consumption, we are opening the door towards new forms of plant allyship, that move beyond the constant oscillation between stimulation and depression.
This is not to say that alcohol - the essence of grape and grain - will not have a role to play in this speculative future where we chill out a bit and turn inwards. Like all plant-substances, alcohol has its beauty and utility, when contained by ritual, and controlled by dose. The trouble is, for far too long alcohol has been poured too liberally into a society that doesn’t have the capacity to contain its power. Which is when an ally becomes an enemy, and a relationship needs to be reworked.