I don't know how to explain it.
I give up.
It's not about presuming anyone's motivations.... It's about the general observation of many many many people and their behaviors. It's about the fact that the grocery store aisle has ten times as much beer, wine and liquor as the water and flavored water and soda and juice aisle. It's about a multi-billion dollar industry. It's about a western-world society that plain and simple, inarguably markets a NEED to drink in order to be many things as an adult in our world today and it's about my own experience of observing the behaviors (regardless the motivations) of people around me. It's plain to me that alcohol has more than an 'occasional' place in the day to day lives of many, many, many people - and I'm glad for the fact that it doesn't in mine and it strikes me that a LOT more people than just alcoholics or 'problem drinkers' have a place on the spectrum of dependence.