I'm not averse to a small L'Chaim myself, but such serious imbibing needs some explanation! Sociologists may point to the wisdom of a system which mandates the release of tensions that have built up over the year, but I think they're missing the point.

We spend most of our waking hours thinking we know right from wrong. We sit in judgment on people and on issues. In the courtrooms of our minds we try our friends, our spouses, and humanity at large!

When we drink on Purim till we don't know the difference between 'Haman the accursed and Mordechai the blessed', we are admitting that there is only One Judge, and all our efforts to judge the world are like those of someone 'under the affluence of incohol'!