If we think of alcohol, for instance, as disabling negative barriers to cooperation (lying, suspicion, cheating), we have to also see its positive role in building affiliative, pair bond–like emotional ties between members of the group through the stimulation of endorphins and serotonin. Chemical ecstatic states are both a scalpel that disarms the self and the glue that binds suspicious, selfish apes into the cultural hive mind.
