I am listening to a radio broadcast about deaths from addiction. There are still those who treat addiction like a moral failing and not like an illness. It is as though the addicted person is simply a large naughty child who uses in order to keep on tweaking the nose, and other bodily parts, of Aunt Authority.
I do not doubt that addiction is an illness. I am neutral about the moral failing aspect. I think I have trouble with the term itself. It seems to assume that society, or humanity is made up of two types of people. The moral failures and the moral successes. The pillars of society and the sewers and garbage cans. So, then, what about the priest who diddles little boys? Or the obnoxious billionaire occupying the Oval Office, you know, the one who makes creepy incestuous remarks about his daughter, and brags about grabbing women by the p#ssy? The same oaf who wants to bomb an impoverished small country out of existence because of its fat mouthy little dictator.
I don't know what gets people addicted to drugs, and by drugs I mean all drugs, including nicotine, alcohol and caffeine. Some of my mental health clients also live with substance dependencies. I said to one, recently, that the next time anyone judges him for smoking crack, that he simply reply that he would love to see how well this righteous stalwart would cope just one day without his favourite blend of dark roast Arabica that he gets at his friendly neighbourhood Starbucks.
We live in a culture of addiction. We are a nation of moral failures. Not one of us has the right to judge. Those who are living with socially sanctioned addictions do rather well. Those who smoke crack and shoot heroin and fentanyl not so much. Stigma, you know. And if they had a hellish childhood, so much the worse.
Social and economic equality. Don't leave home without it. We are a collective of successful addicts and unsuccessful addicts. Most of us still are addicts. If it isn't a substance, it could be porn, shopping, gambling, our precious little phones? PREC-IOUS!!!!! as Gollum would say. And according to people's ability to cope, depending on whether or not they are voted off the island, it is all social Darwinism. Winners and losers. Moral failure? We're all moral failures. And our treatment of those who aren't strong enough to survive simply backs up my claim that we are a culture of psychopaths.
And if we are a culture of psychopaths, and if we are also a culture of addiction, then, pardon the reductionist thinking, Gentle Reader, then we are all equally screwed. We still prefer good-looking, high achieving and competitive workers and entrepreneurs over those who excel in softer skills and emotional intelligence. The latter aren't going to be wealthy or powerful and society tends to have a permanent hard-on for the wealthy and powerful. The same parties who, through greed, violence and war will destroy all of us together.
We need desperately to acquire our humanity. Historically, this has never really happened. If our human species is going to have any chance of surviving the challenges of climate change and threats of nuclear war then we are going to have to turn upside down this whole psychopathic mentality that has dominated our history since the invention of agriculture. When we learn to be transformed into kind, gentle, creative, spiritual and compassionate beings, and when we come to value those very life-affirming and life-giving qualities over the wretched death culture full of greed, terror, arrogance and war-making that is still our legacy, then just maybe we will come a little bit closer to validating our humanity and saving our species from our own imminent self-immolation
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