Did prohibition lead to america’s progress ?

Prohibition : Idea of progress

The notion i am going to deal with is named « idea of progress » . So, to begin with, I’d like to give a definition of the notion . Progress is the idea that the world and the society can evolve positively in therms of sciences, technology, modernization, living condition, etc. However, the idea of progress is still debate between those who consider that it’s beneficial and those for whom it’s harmful. To illustrate the notion, i have chosen to talk about prohibition because i think it influenced the evolution of the United States of America. So, prohibiton was introduced in the 1920’ as part of an amendment to the Constitution of the USA. It was set up for different reasons including a wartime concern for preserving grain for food rather than for brewing and distilling. America was becoming a nation of drunkards so activist gathered and created the Temperance league so as to make americans get back into line and let the country evolve.

Did prohibition lead to america’s progress ?

We are going to see how was going America before and during prohibition.

      Before the 1920’s,  people drunk a lot, at every meal whether it is at breakfast, at lunch, at snack and even at dinner. Alcohol was a big part of their lives since the dawn of time. It was first brought by puritans in a boat called the mayflower which shows that alcohol is deeply rooted in the US’ history. Physicians had been saying that liquor is healthier for their patients than water while it was making them sick and ruining their liver.  Grog time was introduced : a bell rang twice a day and men had to stop everything to have a drink. It shows that people were addicted to liquor and that it was making them loose their minds. They were becoming violent with the others: men were beating and rapping women, fighting each other and  destroying everything on their Roads. They were also making accidents and they were constantly fainting what was damaging their abilities. As we can see in an engraving that we have  studied ,the barman is represented with a skull head and this embodies death so it means that alcohol leads to death. For this reason, activists gathered and created the temperance league : it was an organization which was aimed at reducing alcohol consumption . It was the origin of all problems and america had to get rid of the hold that it has on the nation.

      But, in fact, introducing prohibition was way worst and america was going of the deep. Some people may have stopped drinking but those who still drink drink even more. People started to drink liquor illegally, which gave rise to bootlegging and speakeasies. And Alcohol was diluted with toxic chemicals which leads to blindness, paralysis and even death. It also increased organized crime : people started to rob, to threaten and to bribe. It drove the business lucrative alcohol underground giving rise to a large black market. Making it forbidden attracted even more people, they could not resist and they were ready to do the impossible to get liquor because They were addicted to it. So we can tell that prohibition worked like a poison because it amplified the society’s consumption.

     So, to conclude , prohibition didn’t lead to america’s progress. At the contrary, it participated to it decline because people couldn’t accept to stop drinking, they were always finding a way to get alcohol even if it’s illegal.

...