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Reason 1: ...to raise their spirits. But there are other, more dangerous consequences, to which this motivation leads - a person is prone to risky behavior. Often, it ends tragically.

Yeah, come home after a rough day and I have glass of wine to feel better. It often ends tragically. I have to get up the next morning, go back to work and experience another s4itty day.

Well, if one is interested in going paleo-retro, they could claim the four pillars of civilization are alcohol, fire, dogs & marriage.

Consider the most retro-grade culture on the planet today; about the only thing they share is fire. Marriage is only a sham - to an 8 year old cousin. I'm talking about the need to deal with 18 year olds madly in love and willing to kill.

Fire (cooking/environment), dogs (companions/security) and alcohol (socialization via story telling aka verbal history) round out community evolution over 10s of thousands of years.