To Drink or To Think?

College, where supposedly one goes to gain higher learning, is becoming more of a place where one would go to get a higher blood alcohol content. Like any other brilliant idea, colleges began with a pure, uncorrupt intention, to educate individuals so that they may better benefit society. Sure Harvard, America's first college, was founded on the premise that its graduates gained their degrees just to be able to read and understand the Bible, but still it was spreading understanding, and encouraging thought. Today however, students do go to college just to learn, of course that's what they will tell their parents, their teachers, and other adults, but that's not what they're looking forward to. No, in fact, as a college student encountering other college students, I rarely ever find anyone who truly enjoys their classes, learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, but when it comes to drinking, partying, and other fun but unproductive activities, its almost unanimous in agreement on the pleasures found in doing these things. Aristotle, though an ancient philosopher, would agree with them as well. I won't deny the fun found in drinking, I've had fun doing it myself, but Aristotle though he did say that those physical pleasures are enjoyable, he suggested that the pleasures of the mind, and intellectual activity are far superior to those physical pleasures. Having tasted both pleasures I would have to agree. What makes intellectual pleasure better than those physical pleasures is the way in which they satisfy us. Physical pleasures feel incredible, but only last for a few seconds, a minute, or in some circumstances an hour, but they end, they stop satisfying us, and often make us feel bad afterward, either from the loss of that pleasure, or the repercussions of what it took to give us that pleasure. When you're drunk sobering up often makes an individual feel sad or depressed, and coupled with a hangover it can make a person downright miserable, and yet people drink again the next night just to get that good feeling back. Intellectual pleasure however, has the potential to be sustained. When an individual thinks of a pleasurable thought, that thought not only makes the individual feel good, but if it is a beneficial thought, say a story one comes up with that is enjoyable to read, but also makes people think, that pleasure can be sustained, and further pleasure can be derived from the satisfaction of giving other people intellectual pleasure by encouraging them to think. I will confess intellectual pleasure is harder to discover, and it takes time, and effort, which is why most people do not find it, and resort to the much easier pleasures of the physical nature. So when people come to college they don't enjoy the massive amounts of intellectual pleasures available to them, and so instead alcohol serves as a temporary substitute. If it were at all possible to bring people into intellectual pleasure however, and students could enjoy the limitless benefits, college campuses would no longer be littered with empty beer cans, and emptied handles of the harder stuff, and instead be flourishing with students reading, debating each other, sharing their thoughts, and actually benefiting society.