Ethics of alcohol policy in a saturated society

Alcohol policy in modern society has been embedded in three of its great ideals: progress, individualistic universalism and nationalism. The total consumption theory and the idea of the public good have been the culmination of modern thinking in the prevention of alcohol problems. The modern ideals have today become achieved. Saturated modernity has led from a political society to a mass society, in which modern sociological theories are powerless, and ethical reflection is required. Two contradicting moral resources offer themselves: the ethics of the rule and the culture of authenticity. The modernist idea of the public good is related to the ethics of the rule but its viability is questioned. The Durkheimian idea that ethical decisions are inherently social is suggested as a solution.