Taking too many risks

PalmWe are a society capable of convincing everyone that you can't ride a motorcycle without a helmet, that you're risking too much. In just a few years, awareness of the importance of protecting your head has grown, and also, at least much more than before, of the "if you drink, don't drive" sentiment. We have changed habits, we have raised awareness across generations, and we have increased surveillance and sanctions. But the same zeal that has been shown to preserve the physical head is not applied to protecting the mental state or the liver of minors.

Free bar for minors. Journalist Maria Llull portrayed it well in the last edition of ARABalears, and she portrayed two realities in which we haven't evolved: on the one hand, the permissiveness of the relationship between alcohol and minors. Its sale is prohibited, but everyone looks the other way. "I go where I want and drink what I want," said a 15-year-old girl. On the other hand, the fact that bars still don't usually object to underage girls entering, because they believe they attract male customers. Something that denotes a rancid machismo: as if it were normal for adult men to find it charming to have teenagers as a lure. And all this without anyone finding reason to be outraged.

All generations have had their adventures and excesses, and those of us who are older than that did a lot of stupid things. The past, as in many other things, was worse. But we have to ask ourselves why, if we've managed to make things like riding without a helmet unacceptable, we can't do the same with permissiveness toward alcohol and with that machismo disguised as normality. Because protecting your head is all very well, but protecting the person wearing the helmet should also be mandatory.