Originally Posted by
intention 
It's got nothing to do with fashion. Alcoholics can't do controlled drinking through will-power that's why tapering off is not used.
I have both tapered in a controlled fashion and also gone cold turkey in the past. Yet I am most definately an alcoholic. I am able to control the amount that I drink when I choose to. My problem is that I enjoy drinking (well at least I used to) so I do it to excess. It's the temptation to "have fun" that causing me to want to get sober. That and the fact that I am tired of withdrawals time after time.
I do not believe it's a fantasy that one can taper. It just takes discipline. To suggest that every alcoholic is a mess that can't help but drink endlessless all the time is stereotyping.
Also, who is to say that tapering could not be administered in a controlled hospital enviroment?