Lady Gaga’s controversial new video about rape is extremely disturbing to see. But that hasn’t stopped 14 million viewers from watching and listening to the song “Till It Happens To You” since it came out Sept. 17.

It is intended to raise consciousness about instances of rape on campus, but the alcohol factor has been overlooked and underreported on many college campuses.

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The video includes scenes that involve alcohol; these have not been commented on. Most feature what appears to be underage drinking. No scenes appear in public bars.

Instead, the scenes are from private spaces like frat houses, dorm rooms, and other places that seem generally unsafe. They not only lack adult supervision, they seem dangerously lacking in any normal level of social monitoring. In public bars, for example, you can follow drinks from the shelf to the glass to ensure they contain no drugs. Not so in private settings.

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The lesson of the video is about more than rape. It is about a secretive and strangely well-developed culture of underage drinking, and the laws that have given rise to it. The drinking age in the United States is 21 and was adopted in 1984. It remains one of the highest age limits in the world.

The drinking age in the U.S. is 21 and was adopted in 1984. It remains one of the highest age limits in the world.

Countries with equally strict drinking laws are few, and all are countries dominated by Islamic law. They include Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Cameroon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sri Lanka, and Tajikistan. Most of the rest of the world has settled on age 18 for liquor and 16 for beer and wine. In practice, most European countries have very low enforcement of even that. Somehow it works just fine.

What it means in practice is that other high school graduates have three full years, during which time a sizeable percentage of the American population scramble for fake IDs. If they can’t get them, they lie, beg, borrow or steal to get liquor. It has led to a culture of binge drinking. They “pre-game” before events in case they won’t be served alcohol. They sneak in flasks and down as much as possible while others aren’t looking.

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Most significantly, instead of drinking in public bars where others can watch and manage the scene, they hide out in unsafe places and make themselves vulnerable. They’re in dorm rooms with no place to go when they start feeling threatened. They are manipulated into situations where there is no escape.

It’s shocking how much this dangerous culture dominates of the lives of people ages 18-21. I was recently invited to give a series of lectures to college-age students on a campus where the students stayed for three days. It was supposed to be about economics. Economics was not the first issue on their minds. What dominated the conversation was drinking: who was the right age, who had fake IDs, which local bars are lenient, who could go buy liquor and sneak it into dorm rooms, and so on.

Instead of drinking in public bars, where others can watch and manage the scene, they hide out in unsafe places and make themselves vulnerable.

I hinted, at some point, that I had brought my own liquor. This was a mistake. My messaging systems exploded with kids offering me money for mine, and otherwise hoping for an invitation.

These were not rowdy delinquents. They were run-of-the-mill kids from middle-class homes. Where to get the next drink and where it would be consumed were the main things on their minds.

In fact, the issue of alcohol has been on their minds since graduating high school. The first parties on campus feature shocking amounts of alcohol, as anyone who has rushed during Greek Week can tell you. The “jungle juice” is mixed in large buckets filled with random ingredients and consumed like water. The peer pressure is intense.

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Adults respond that the solution is easy: Don’t drink.

This is pure fantasy. The drinking-age law would surely be a winner in a competition for the least obeyed law. The notion that this law is accomplishing anything to actually stop or even curb teen drinking is preposterous. Instead, we see all the unintended effects of Prohibition — overindulgence, antisocial behavior, disrespect for the law, secrecy and sneaking, and a massive diversion of human energy.

Adults respond that the solution is easy: Don’t drink. This is pure fantasy.

An organization of college administrators is fed up. The Amethyst Initiative aims to start a debate on the drinking-age law and the consequences it has brought to college campuses. It has the support of 135 colleges.

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Sadly, there is no political movement to do anything about the problem. To suggest we lower the drinking age to bring some responsibility and normalcy to this problem means political death. And the age group affected has zero political influence or power.

Thus does the problem persist, unchecked, undebated, unopposed. People only look at the surface problems — campus rape — without dealing honestly about the underlying legal problem of the drinking age itself.

We do need to raise consciousness. And make a change.