My understanding about this is: By breaking the rules you will break habits.
Now, would it be possible that our modern society can break this age old rules about addiction and be able to move forward without the addiction label?
The concept
of addiction is used as a fear tactic, on everything from video games to smart phones and beyond. If you did not know; You control people by Fear.
Perhaps
we should start contemplating the meaning of our society's -addiction - to addiction terminology.
The numbers
of things that we are potentially at risk of becoming addicted to, is a
staggering list of 230+ different addictions. This excludes things like alcohol, drugs (illegal and legal), caffeine and nicotine. That makes me wonder if there is anything out there that is
not seen as potentially addictive.
The true
meaning of this never-ending list of pseudo-addictions is that society IS
addicted all right, to the concept of addiction itself. Once, addiction meant
only a few things. But our tolerance grew, and society needed more and more
addictions to feed our cravings. If we try to stop, we go into withdrawal,
unable to find any way to distract ourselves from responsibility, unable to
avoid the consequences of our choices. Every time a new technology surfaces, we
use it to the point of self-destruction, and then label it as addictive to try
to regain some control over our use of the technology. We use the concept of
addiction more every day, despite our growing knowledge that it is destroying
our culture, our legal system, our ability to hold ourselves responsible. Our
brains are changed, affected by the neurochemical rushes we get, from seeing
people on television, their lives destroyed by their addictions. We get that
rush from the voyeuristic insight into the suffering of others, from the joy
and jealousy of watching the mighty fall, and from the relief that it's not us
up there.
We do live in an "addictive
culture." The addiction lies in our society's desire to label our behaviors as addictive and compulsive.
This I would like to ask, "Where is the 12 step program that our society can attend, to confess its
powerlessness over this addiction to addiction."
The media, churches and government uses the concept of addiction to create moral panics, triggering fear and
anxiety into parents and society. Most parents have never even seen illegal drugs. They are so fearful and paranoid about this illegal drugs that they will easily spend R 30,000 to R 50,000 to get their children rehabilitated, to no avail. Society uses
the concept of addiction to justify laws and restrictions and giving young children criminal records, putting them in jail, destroying their lives forever.
So next time before you go on a march against drugs or decide to throw your child out in the street, please think.
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