To Fandy: You ask about my philosophy. Luckily, I've never been a chronic binge drinker to the levels I've read about here, so my story maybe different. Tactically, I'm cognizant of a giant decrease in my productivity, career success, physical athleticism and tolerance of other people during this period of time in which my average drinks per day and days drinking per month have steadily increased to unhealthy levels. But I don't share the AA philosophy that we are powerless. My philosophy is that I have the power to replicate my habits and lifestyle from the periods of my life in which I was truly happy and didn't use alcohol as a crutch to "relax" or "decompress." That means more sports and less drinking. It means enjoying a couple of beers at a ball game, not drinking 4 Jack and Cokes before the game as liquid appetizers. It also means skipping networking events that are an excuse to drink wine on a Tuesday, not scheduling meetings for happy hour, and not taking my laptop to the local pub to work at night. These are all easy habits to stop. They would lead to the first one to three drinks of my night, which would then turn into 4-8 when I got home and played Xbox with a bottle of wine next to me. So I don't anticipate that I'll drink 10 drinks at a ball game the next time I go out. I'll do what I did before - enjoy an evening out with friends, get up (non-hungover) in the morning to play soccer. Happier and more active life = less reason to numb my brain.
To ErikT: There are plenty of places in the world where I can go engage in a debate, and frankly, doing it in an anonymous forum is about the most uninteresting way possible. I'm not going to respond further to your "It will never work" philosophy. My response was to Karate and his view on moderation. I was sharing my thoughts on it for him. I'm not asking you to endorse or follow it. Enjoy your day.