This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The Fiat Crack Addict is Convulsing and Headed Straight for The DTs
The Fiat Crack Addict is Convulsing and Headed Straight for The DTs
By
Cognitive Dissonance
For years I have seen strong parallels between the self destructive gyrations of the terminally addicted and the nation states of today who are all following similar paths to self immolation. I suppose I shouldn’t assume that the reader is in agreement with me that the world’s economic and social systems are in deep trouble and headed for a disastrous fall. On the other hand if you don’t agree with this assessment, it seems odd that you would be reading this in the first place. So for the sake of brevity (something I usually avoid at all costs) let’s agree that the issues we are facing are unprecedented in this so-called modern economic era and move on. Those who have never been, or are not currently, addicted to drugs, alcohol or any other addictive substance or state of mind, can never quite comprehend what addiction is really all about. Take alcohol for example. If you have never experienced the absolute inability to stop after just two or three beers, or two or three drinks, the idea of being completely and utterly unable to stop drinking until you are thoroughly drunk or passed out is simply beyond comprehension. “Just stop for crying out loud. What the hell’s wrong with you?” Oh sure, we might be able to ‘understand’ addiction, meaning we can indulge in the intellectual process of imagining what it is like by putting ourselves in their shoes. And no doubt this does bring about a greater understanding. But to truly comprehend the total body, mind and spiritually destructive experience of being thoroughly addicted is simply impossible for those who are not, or have never been, addicted. Period! Full stop! If you were to spend some time talking to people who were at one point or another completely engulfed by their addiction and who now have substantial recovery time under their belt, I would wager most of them would agree with my assessment. Not being able to comprehend holds true for many other ‘normal’ life events as well, though we don’t think about them in quite the same way. For instance, it is simply impossible for me, a male, to comprehend what it is like to be pregnant and to bear a child. There are some things that must be experienced firsthand in order to comprehend them. I can possess a tremendous amount of empathy for those who are pregnant and/or have given birth and I may even have a sincere and genuine desire to know what it is like. But in this case, unless I actually become pregnant and then give birth, something I cannot physically do, I just can’t comprehend in any meaningful or substantial way what pregnancy and childbirth is all about. And I deliberately use the word ‘comprehend’ here rather than ‘know’ or ‘understand’ because the level of internalization and embodiment implied when using the words ‘comprehend’ or ‘comprehension’ is easily an order or two of magnitude greater than when merely saying that I understand something. If I am a male obstetrician, it is very likely that I understand quite well what it is like to give birth, but I can still never comprehend it. However, if I am any female who has given birth before I can both understand and comprehend the process and experience. In this usage the difference between understanding and comprehending is as stark and self evident as night and day. And if you don’t believe me, ask the mothers around you for their opinion. I suspect they will be more than happy to oblige and will diligently fill you and me in on the details of our male (and childless female) ignorance. I press this point in order to further this article’s line of reasoning, one that is not just missed, but often not even seen by the majority of us who are not addicted or have never been so. While we dismiss the antics of the Ponzi masters and their financial, political, corporate and military henchmen as [take your pick] crazy, out of touch, corrupt, conflicted, in denial, evil, in bed, bought and paid for, maniacs etc., in truth many of us are often completely flabbergasted by their seemingly self serving but ultimately self destructive behavior. We can easily ‘understand’ what it is they are doing and even how they may and do benefit from their behavior. But at the same time our heads can never quite get around what it is they do and why they do it. It is foreign to us, it’s just not something we would ever really consider doing ourselves, regardless of the monetary or social gain. It just does not compute and I think this is one of the reasons why so many people tune out and turn away. The vast majority push it all aside in disgust or pass it off as just the children rough housing again, reason enough to just ignore them and hope they’ll eventually settle down. I don’t wish to get into an in-depth discussion about the causes of addiction or if it is a disease or not, if it can be ‘cured’ or simply suspended or abated or any other of the controversial issues revolving around addiction. I think we can all agree that addiction does exist and it can strike just about anyone in any social and economic class. And the odds are pretty high that you, dear reader, are either addicted yourself or, far more likely, you have or had family, friends or acquaintances who are or were addicted.
If you feel none of this applies to you, just wait a little while longer because the odds are very much in my favor that you will eventually fit within this description. While you are waiting, can you think of anyone you know who smokes? If you can, add them and yourself to my grouping above because most certainly smoking is an addiction, just like drugs and alcohol. Only smoking is more socially acceptable (thought that is rapidly changing) and more importantly perfectly legal, at least in private. In fact, in some respects addiction to nicotine is worse than some drugs and alcohol for a multiple of reasons. Go talk to someone who hasn’t has a cigarette in 8 hours and see what they have to say on the matter. However I would like to expand, at least for some, the definition of addiction and addictive behavior. You may remember the first sentence of the second paragraph where I said in part “or any other addictive substance or state of mind”. It is the ‘state of mind’ that most people don’t consider when listing addictions and this is a serious omission, deliberate in many cases, for to accept a wider characterization would force many to include themselves in their condemnation. Few would disagree with me if I said that some people are addicted to gambling, sex, food or pornography. But would you also consider excessive use of the Internet or texting or work or even exercise as addictions, because I do? There is also obsessive compulsive disorder or those who self injure and the Hollywood tabloids are more than happy to point out those who are addicted to plastic surgery or weight loss. Some addictions are more destructive than others, but still remain addictive behavior because (self) destruction is not one of the measures I use to identify addiction. It is primarily a state of mind that is often, but not always, enabled by addictive substances. The list is shockingly long and growing by the week. And many of these do not involve an obvious physical dependency, at least not in the traditional sense of drugs and alcohol. It is not that these addictions are ‘different’ as much as they are more pure, if such a word could be used in this context. Talk once again to those recovering alcoholics and addicts and many will tell you that long after the physical dependency was flushed from their system, but still early in their recovery, there remained a ‘craving’ to fulfill their addiction. Their state of mind still existed in the addicted state and it is this that truly tormented them. Thankfully for many who are in long term recovery, the compulsion subsides and might even disappear, though many tell me that occasionally and out of the blue the urge will suddenly flash back, similar to a sudden and sharp phantom pain of short duration and uncertain location. But my emphasis remains on the state of mind here because there is still some more definition expansion I wish to explore. Clearly while actual substance abuse can and is an integral part of many addictions, it is not a prerequisite for many others. It seems to me that other states of mind might also be considered addictive, though many will try to bargain down from this frightening term and settle at the more emotionally and socially comfortable ‘excessive’, ‘obsessive’ or ‘obsessed’ to describe the following afflictions, primarily because they represent the core personal, business and governmental practices of Americans, America and the world. It is quite clear and in my view irrefutable that some people, usually very rich and powerful but not always, are addicted to power, money and control in all its forms, including greed, hoarding, fear mongering, war, terror, oppression, manipulation, mind control etc. Again, the list is endless depending upon how fine you wish to slice the apple, which by the way was Eve’s obsession.
(h/t image provided by williambanzai7 @ http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/)
I wish to highlight ‘control’ here for it can be argued that when speaking about addiction everything flows from and towards the need, or rather the compulsion, to control. This includes the need to seek even more control after one has failed to achieve a certain perceived level of control, the hallmark of any addiction. This brings me to a listing of the symptoms of the insanity, which at its heart is what addiction is all about. Think about what’s going on today in the political and financial world as you read the following and consider some of the more obvious similarities and connections. The central element of addiction is control, or more accurately the complete lack of control. When speaking of substance abuse, but also in more general terms about any addiction, some is not enough and one is one too many. While in the throes of their addiction, rarely will the afflicted admit they have lost control. It is only later, after recovery has begun and the cobwebs begin to clear, will many admit that not only did they lose control long before it became apparent to everyone else, but that they were always just as shocked and surprised by their actions as everyone else was. They never understood, despite their very real desire to regain control, why they were never able to. It stands to reason that if one has lost control, but doesn’t wish to admit it, that denial would be the process used to get through each day of increasing insanity. But I’m not talking about your average garden variety level of denial here. No, I’m talking about supercharged balls-to-the-wall 31 flavors of denial. This is about denial piled upon denial layered with even more denial so deep that the recovering person will spend years, even decades, digging out all the dead carcasses as they come to grips with the former disaster they called life before recovery. Denial so deep in fact that first they denied, then they denied they ever denied until finally they forget there ever was any question about denial in the first place. Wrap all this up and then take it to the tenth power and you begin to ‘understand’ what we are talking about here. This is not an exaggeration. A subset of denial would be rationalization, justification and bargaining. Even though the addicted will never admit to his or her addiction, the truck loads of problems they create still must be dealt with, though I use the term ‘dealt with’ here extremely loosely. Whatever the flavor-of-the-day problem is, one iron clad rule always applies. It is never the addict’s fault. NEVER! The addict projectile vomits personal responsibility as if Ipecac is being swallowed on a continuous basis. This actually makes perfect sense because to admit personal responsibility for the problems of the addiction quickly leads to the addiction itself. So the addict will use any and all excuses in the book to deflect blame and responsibility. Narcissism and naval gazing are natural outgrowths of the addict’s inability to come to terms with his or her own addiction. An entire fantasy world and often several that interlock and supplement each other are created and constantly managed and massaged in the mind of the addicted. And it is here where they engage in fantastical blame shifting and justification that truly boggles the mind of those caught up in the tsunami wave of destruction and disaster that originates within the addiction. Incredibly, while to the saner outsider (keeping in mind that everything is relative in the world of addiction) the constant barrage of lies, excuses and finger pointing have long ago moved into the absurd, to the addicted it all makes perfect sense because you and I are the problem, not them. This all inevitably leads to lying of such intensity and magnitude that a professional liar would blush in shame, having finally met someone worse (better?) than him or her. Stated as simply as possible, during the latter stages of the addiction, the afflicted becomes a pathological liar, a thief and a cheat. When consumed by the addiction, nothing else matters and no one else warrants any more attention or honesty than is needed to get to the next bottle, fix or emotional relief. An addict in the end stages of their death by suicide has a laser like focus of attention upon themselves and their needs that would put physicists and mathematicians to shame for their inability to match the addict’s level of single minded effort and concentration.
At this point, the insanity has completely taken over and the addict would sell their first born if they could for a few more hours of relief. And this is where most people are lost in their understanding because long before it is obvious that the addiction has all but destroyed the afflicted, for the addict it is all about dulling the pain, having long ago lost the ability to feel genuine pleasure. At this point, relief is nothing more than the temporary dulling of the physical pain while the inner demons are quieted, but not silenced, once again. While there is no place to hide and nowhere to run, there are a few sweet hours of oblivion and numbed forgetting.
This is why it always takes more and more to get somewhere close to the extreme high s/he once experienced, be it physical, mental or emotional. As s/he slips ever closer into the welcoming arms of death and the end of the pain, there is no longer any chance of ever again reclaiming that long lost ecstasy, something the addiction inside has been chasing since the very first high. All there is left is nothing more than some numbing of the pain as the addict kicks the can of withdrawal down the road once more. Soon enough even the road and the can will disappear, but not before everything gets exponentially worse. We ain’t seen nothing yet.
Don’t think for a moment that I’m just talking about substance abuse here. Consider those power and money hungry people who want more and more and are never satisfied with 95% when 96% is still available. It is not the quantity that matters because the rush from the control and power is no longer fully realized or experienced since long ago they became desensitized and essentially dead to the world you and I occupy.
Thus their destructive actions don’t really apply to themselves any more since they no longer live in the same reality as we do. It is so much more than them thinking that they can just hunker down and avoid any blowback. It’s all just the cost of the business of their addiction. Bottom line, blowback or adverse consequences are immaterial to their distorted and horribly twisted thinking and risk weighting mechanisms in much the same way it is not about winning or losing to the addicted gambler, but the action itself that is sought out again and again. It’s the juice man and each shot in the arm is less effective than the last.
And so all these symptoms, along with many more I haven’t mentioned, coalesce into the need, the desperately obsessed need, to do ANYTHING to get what they want. This is in fact the supporting mechanism for the accelerating addiction and the underlying justification that leads all addicts to eventually engage in abuse not only of themselves, for this is a given, but of everyone and anyone who is captured by the insanity’s black hole gravity well. Suffice it to say that there is always mental and emotional abuse administered by the addict. Again, this is a given simply by the very nature and progression of the addiction.
But very often we also witness the devastating physical abuse rained down upon those closest to the insanity, though this is strenuously denied by the addicted while they are deeply engulfed within their own consumption. The abused are often dragged into the insanity kicking and screaming all the way down into the black abyss until eventually they are also afflicted by an equally devastating offshoot of the insanity. I am, of course, speaking of the enablers who are often just as conflicted, confused and codependent as those infected with the full blown addiction.
?
(h/t image provided by williambanzai7 @ http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/)
This leads us directly into the final chapter of this comparison between the addicted individuals, along with their enablers living within the general insanity, and the country and world as an addicted entity run by the power and money hungry addicts and their enablers. Here I wish to focus on codependency, a word that has gotten a bad rap because it is often seen only in a negative light. In a healthy world, codependency means relying upon one another for the mutual benefit and growth of all. It is a synergy that produces more than the sum of its parts and its presence is a sign of a thriving, energetic and wholesome system in which humans most certainly can participate. Sadly, codependency in the context of the addicted and their enablers is defined as the mirror opposite of how it is found naturally on our blue planet. The addicted become black hole vampires, sucking in all available energy from their victims in order to consume more physical and psychic life force than they produce. Under these circumstances codependency produces much less than the total input values and is of no intrinsic value to anyone other than the consuming addict. It is not a dance of synergistic creation, but rather the raw sucking sound of parasitic consumption and partially digested excrement.
Nearly all of the symptoms exhibited by the addicted are also symptoms of the codependent enabler, though they are often subservient to, or mirror images of, the addicted. Just as the addicted are consumed with the need to control in their never ending quest to reach the lost ecstasy, the codependent enabler is consumed with trying to control the addicted spouse, child, friend, co-worker or whoever it is they are locked into the death spiral with.
In effect the codependent enabler is attempting to manage something he or she has absolutely no hope of ever controlling, since the object of their attempt to restrain, the addiction itself, can never be controlled by the addicted let alone the enabler. This vicious cycle of repeated attempts to control, then abject failure to control, followed by even more attempts to control is the very definition of insanity. And it is rocket fuel for the addicted, which without his or her cadre of codependent collaborators would quickly flame out, then flash crash and burn. Thus it is the codependent enabler that provides the sustaining life force of their very own slavery because once they embrace the vampire they are often destroyed by the very same vampire.
At this point the reader must be asking themselves an obvious question. Why doesn’t the enabler run for his or her life, putting as much distance between the life sucking vampire and themselves as they can? But the ties that bind them together in this dance of death were made many years in the past, when life was much better and the relationship was actually productive and enjoyable.
After several decades of deepening cross connections, be it children, money, mutual friends, love, sex, power or influence, promises of an easy retirement, whatever, the allure of what was once good is the bait that keeps the codependent enabler enticed and enthralled. In effect the false promise of a return to the good times of the long ago lost life act as the enabler’s own elusive lost ecstasy which can never again be reached. So now we have both the addicted and the enabler jousting at similar fantasy windmills on the hill while driving each other insane in the process.
Mix in a healthy dose of physical abuse handed out by the addicted upon the codependent enabler, which supplements and cements years of guilt trips and carrot and stick control techniques, and you have one massively effective cluster fuck of mutual assured destruction writ large. Both parties in this macabre death ritual long ago lost any ability to see with rational or sane eyes what they are doing to themselves and each other or what they have become.
Thus everyone is trapped on a runaway train that is rapidly approaching terminal velocity and where the desperately panicked conductor/enabler screams unintelligible and conflicting instructions from the careening caboose to the brain dead and hopelessly addicted engineer. The very same engineer mind you who is slavishly captured by his or her own addiction and pays just enough attention to the conductor to keep him or her from jumping from the train in a last frantic bid to survive.
Caught between these two self destructive forces are the terrified and helpless children strapped into the swaying and lurching passenger cars, true victims who can only hang on and hope they survive their frightening ordeal. Of course they are all in training to fill their future roles as either hope junkie conductors/enablers or consumed addicted zombies walking the path to self destruction.
The Connections Are Obvious
How can we not see the obvious connection between the word images painted above and our society in general and our leadership and all of us specifically unless we just don’t wish to look? This nation and our financial, corporate, religious and political leaders are the seriously addicted engineer desperately trying to stave off the death throes of the DT’s (Delirium Tremens) by consuming more and more fiat in a losing battle to cheat death one more time. And as much as our egos scream out in protest that we are all just helpless victims and thus those frightened children trapped on the train to hell, in fact it is our own children that belong there for we are the conductor/enablers whether we wish to admit it or not.
If nothing else this illustrates the abject futility of hoping our addicted leadership will change their ways if only we give them additional time, money, support or more (hangman’s) rope. They will not change unless and until they see the need to change and they become willing to exert as much effort in realizing that change as they did in perpetuating their addiction. If they haven’t done so by now then they will not do so in the future.
Just as important, if not even more so, is the sobering fact that we cannot control the insanity simply because we are an integral part of the insanity. The train is out of control and we can neither regain control by shouting or pleading with the engineer to stop or by passively hanging on and falsely hoping that the addled engineer will suddenly snap out of it and slow down. This is our own enabling fantasy and it binds us to the insanity as completely and seamlessly as the addicted. We must remove all support and let the stinking mess collapse or we must remove the engineer from the controls and take over. This madness will not cure itself.
07-31-2011
Cognitive Dissonance
?
- advertisements -
the belief that one may hold that they are not "addicted" to anything is either the consciousness of perfect enlightenment or the consciousness of perfect denial and ignorance. i am not here to judge. . The Kogi: The Elder Brother’s Warning http://tierra-y-vida.blogspot.com/2006/09/kogi-elder-brothers-warning.html
at the risk of redundancy....
beliefs and ideas, concepts , are addictive memes
eliminating/displacing the thought capacity/quality.
con-clusions. done. it being very convenient to be
relieved of the burden of thinking and all it requires.
substance use / substance abuse. so what is the difference
between use and abuse? a and b combined, upfront, that
being public opinion. oh no, not consensus again.
but, we are addicted to debt as a lung is addicted to breathing.
we were made by men to function in this way, right or wrong.(obviously
wrong). we were made otherwise but have been significantly altered,
rearranged, or molded so.
notice no serious pundit or person of any repute can ask for an
exposition, full and transparent and open, of what money is. they
discuss amounts and distribution to some extent but not the nature
of the unit/s itself, in public. this exposition would reveal the crime,
ongoing. the addiction to criminal stealing and rape, ongoing. this
question is the rosetta stone of future civilization and will be ignored
by the media, politicians, business, markets etc.. for as long as possible
so they all can continue to steal as much as the law allows till such time
that they need to starve out the many from their indolence.
ie addiction, aka culture. spread the guilt and risk, pocket the difference.
anyway ......
it is shark week and the new concern a priory is to consider the needs of the
shark as an endangered species.
so it goes.
" debts that cannot be repaid will not be repaid ". m.hudson
end of story.
and the debts, for the last 40 years, that is forever, are fiat, out of
thin air and confidence.(pure authoritative bullshit).
so... reset, reboot...jubilee and present yourself as worthy of
full equality in all aspects and on all levels !
you must have demands or die for nothing, together.
imo
Thank you, CD, for this insightful article.
It was a sublimely satisfying fix for my read/learn/comment internet addiction. Which really is no problem at all, except now I'm late for work again.
LOL
Send me the bill for your lost wages. I'd rather owe it to you then cheat you out of it. :)
You owe me $.02 in copper-plated zinc slugs.
Hey CD interesting post as always.
Found an insane site with some of the best documentaries around, alongside talks and articles. Think folks who read these posts on a regular basis will find it very interesting, here are some of my picks:
1. Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century (2010) - A frightening look into the process of human conditioning and control. If you thought CD was bleak, you an't seen nothing yet. Its 2 hours long.
http://www.filmsforaction.org/Watch/Human_Resources_Social_Engineering_i...
2. Starsuckers (2009) - Looks at the psychological reasons behind peoples never ending desire to follow and be associated with all things famous. As opposed to the doc above, it looks at these issues is a very entertaining way, which IMHO is better for friends/family who are new to these issues. Brutal in places. Also looks at the potential scam of 'Band Aid'.
http://www.filmsforaction.org/Watch/Starsuckers_2009/
3. Lifting the Veil: Obama and the Failure of Capitalist Democracy (2011) - Crushs any hope of change EVER coming from political parties. Made by the same outfit how made 'Human Resoruces' above, and another doc called 'Psy War'. First class stuff. For some reason the stream has been blocked, but you can find it elsewhere on the net.
4. Chris Hedges: Empire of Illusion - A no wholes-barred attack on the media/political/economic system. Man wields a massive stick!
http://www.filmsforaction.org/Watch/Chris_Hedges_Empire_of_Illusion/
Some folks might find these docs bleak, but I found them all quite empowering. At least I know the game being played and can do my best to counter/avoid it. I like how Starsuckers attempts to engage folks. The others are a straight up assault on your senses (I felt a bit sick after watching the Human conditioning one), which I like very much, but we need to find alternative ways to engage folks outside of the 'we're all fucked' approach.
Engage Bitchez!
Enjoy! :)CD your spelling corrector wasn't working : Naval and navel. (just oneexample))) hapens to the best!
From a philosophical point : how does one cure addiction to life and liberty? We are all transients anyway! So natural cures are the ultimate solution as the ZH motto reminds us.
But, society has no absolute choices, just relative ones. War being the worst as 'final transient solution'!
Actually the spell check worked just fine since 'naval' and 'navel' are both correct spellings. It was the usage that was incorrect. If you have ever written something that involves going over and over it to fine tune it, eventually you no longer see small mistakes such as the one you pointed out. This is where a fresh set of eyes helps out. Three sets did not find that problem either.
There is one absolute choice that I see. Do we pursue a narrow self interest or the greater good that also can help our self interest, though usually not immediately? Instant gratification or delayed gratification. Sounds like an addict to me.
yes that is a question of individual mindset and ethics. But one that is difficult to define for a nation, aggregates of individuals.
Whereas free will of the individual is a binary solution, manichean in choice, when its black and white, as for medically irreversible addiction other than through free will, moral choice.
There is no such thing as free will or moral choice when you, or a nation of individuals, are addicts. All there is in this case is obsession. If you have never been an addict you simply cannot comprehend what it is. If you have not then you measure an addict using terms and tools that apply to a mind that is not addicted.
I would say that if you are an unthinking part of today's world you are addicted to this 'world'.
I don't consider myself addicted to any pathology to my cognitive knowledge. I understand what you say and I respect that. First hand knowledge is vital to real comprehension. But the addiction to which you infer at the national level is NOT a medical pathology; the 'greed is good' mantra, now become corporate/oligarchical America's affirmed swan song. This is a mind set which is totally a product of hubris and irrational exuberance. As such, it can be fought by the majority of Americans who are not party to it. These guys are on a runaway toboggan and they've no desire to admit it or to try and put the brakes on. But this is pure power play, a pseudo pathology which is very much controllable by those who implement it. They are not mental retards or pathologically convulsive people like epileptics, who have no biological control over their own bodies, at certain moments. They know what they are doing, they are rational and they are to a certain degree criminal in their negligence if not by their active participation. The Nuremberg trials taught us that those who were passive bystanders to criminal activities and who had high responsabilities were also accomplices to those crimes.
I WOULDN'T GIVE THEM THE CREDIT OF A PATHOLOGICAL MEDICAL CONDITION.
And this is where you and I part ways in our thinking. For I am saying that the vast majority of Americans are a part of it. They (we) are supporters and enablers.
Well Doctor CD, your diagnosis is pretty tough medecine. I hope the patient will survive shock treatment...even if its sadly, inevitably, imposed by others...and that the patient will not react like a gook with a nuke and a mad desire to play Dr Strangelove...
History appears to support my thesis. Our world history is full of examples of cycles of self destruction followed by recovery, growth, excess, corruption, denial, then destruction again.
Another good "whack on the side of the head!"
Thanks, CD
If you haven't already, I think you will enjoy "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle.
CD, you have done a great job at describing addiction and the effects it has on others. At the same time, I think many addicted people certainly know about their addiction and feel hopeless about changing it as each time they give in to it is a victory for the addiction, so they blame themselves and feel wretched. I don't believe everyone who is addicted is a sociopath, like the people you describe. I don't want to downplay what you say, you have obviously had a lot of experience with this, either as an addicted person or a codependant person.
I say you describe addiction, but I don't feel you have explained it. You seem to go around in circles or perhaps a spiral, corkscrew like.
You are taking a rational, analytic approach and that in itself can become like an addiction, wherein you are basically trying to explain the unexplainable. Of course, there are many possibilities for describing the process of addiction. For instance, it could be modeled in terms of resonance in non-linear dynamics. It could also be looked at as a system involving relaxation oscillations, like the firing of the neuron itself--makes sense, doesn't it, to use a little brain science in this context?
I'm going to go out on a limb, but in a regressive sort of way for us post-moderns. I believe you completely neglect the spiritual side of this issue. AA has their twelve step program, which is very much a spiritual approach, albeit without the trappings of any particular religion. But the idea is that the way out only occurs when you arrive in a space--spiritually speaking--where all is pitch black and there is no way out. At that point, the tiniest inclination of the will against evil, which demands great humility, can lead to a light appearing, wherein despair is transformed into hope. Despair is the "devil" that rides on the shoulder of addiction--its main concomitant, spiritually speaking.
I have a hard time seeing our rulers as necessarily addicted, which is the main point of your article. Rather, I think they are just people who feel entitled and privileged, or "chosen" if you will. Looking at the folks lower down isn't a whole lot different for them than the way we used to feel, back in the 50's, about the starving masses in Africa or India. That problem was far away and had nothing to do with us, the lucky ones who proudly enjoyed the highest standard of living in the world. We were sympathetic in an abstract way for an instant, but too insulated and isolated for the sufferings of others to matter.
I appreciate the feedback. Thanks.
I wasn't trying to 'explain' addiction as much as I was trying to outline the impulses behind it as they pertain to the roles of the addicted and the enabler. There was a hope that the reader would see the connections between the addicted/enabler and the power structure/citizens. If this were a pure essay about addiction I would have done it entirely differently.
As far as rulers not being addicted, no, they are not like a junkie looking for the next hit. But are they obsessed, driven, single minded, unable to accept what they have, needing more and more and so on? Yes, they display all the symptoms of the obsessed. They display the state of mind of the addicted. Is it the perfect analogy? NO. This was an exercise giving the reader the chance to look within. Do you not see how we enable the leadership just like the enablers of an alcoholic and drug addicit?
Understood. It does strike me that this addiction cycle could be applied to societal system (for lack of a better word)in a kind of Max Weber-ish broad analysis. The dynamics and their effects on the individuals and social classes would be fascinating, but that would take a whole book (which I would buy--are you game?). Throw in a little non-linear analysis and a strange attractor and you would have a nice dish!
I have a very slow internet connection, sitting in my cow pasture with my laptop. You speak of us as codependants and enablers of the obsessive, driven behavior of our rulers. But I wonder if things haven't reached the point where we are essentially like serfs in the middle ages working the land for the seignor. It would be a stretch for that to be called codependant or enabling. I guess it depends on how far down this road to neo-feudalism we have traveled.
Hey ya,
Read an interesting article about the shift since the 1970s from the idea of national capital to that of transnational capital, and the effect this has on a range of different issues. The one you mention above, neo-feudalism, is central. See what you think:
Global Capitalism Theory and the Emergence of Transnational Elites
http://www.soc.ucsb.edu/faculty/robinson/Assets/pdf/WIDER.pdf
Spot on, James Wolfensohn, ex-WB chief essentially said the same thing in his Stanford presentation recently on video on youtube.
cheers for that, will have a look
Address the disease.
Where is your rock bottom America? Stop digging or dia. That's your choice.
One of the reasons America is a long way from the bottom is our belief that we are superior to everyone else. So it just can't happen to us. Classic addicted thinking.
Addiction is an attempt to balance that which cannot be balanced. It becomes an absolute non-issue after it is completed in self-destruction. Creation implies destruction. Enjoy the ride, it's short anyways. There is no peace for those who define movement and polarity as a thing to resist. There will be no relief for those seeking it in this dimension, ever.
Be like the drunk that falls out of the moving car and never gets hurt.
...grape wine in a Mason Jar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2OTSw6eZ08
Another complete waste of ZH bandwidth (and my reading time).
The only cure for addiction is risk of self-destruction, and if not heeded, actual self-destruction.
The insanity is trying to treat it, counsel it, etc, which never works.
You have to back off and let them destroy themselves. And if they destroy themselves, good riddance. Be gone with them.
... think we can all agree that addiction does exist and it can strike just about anyone in any social and economic class.
Strike? Addiction can strike?
What bullshit.
Addiction is a choice. Every time. Every single case.
You're an enabler. Believing addiction can strike, implying it's not their fault, they're a victim of something that "struck them", is being an enabler.
They're looking for something to blame it on so they don't have to take responsibility for their choices. You give them something to blame it on. You give them a way to avoid responsibility for their choices.
Then you tell them addiction can be treated, controlled. You give them a way to stay in the addiction. Again, being an enabler.
You're an enabler. You're part of the problem.
Your head is just as messed up as those you treat, or counsel, or whatever it is you do.
Too funny once again. I've often wondered if you were a dry drunk. Or just a drunk.
CD, I always enjoy your comments and virtually always agree. I like your writing as well. I just wished you'd use more precision and chop the length down. I loved this piece, agreed wih it, but I found myself skipping paragraphs as you re-iterated the same premise over and over and re-worked it a bit. I used to have that odd habit myself. I had a co worker, a boss, that would say things like, "point made" "I heard it the first time" until I quit repeating the same points.
Clearly you know a little bit about addiction and dependency. Me too. The analogy is righteous.
fellow junkies & crackheads, all hope is not lost. meet ibogaine:
http://www.ibogaine.org/
Save the youngsters -- make them go cold turkey off the Xbox..
http://news.yahoo.com/xbox-addict-dies-blood-clot-111934041.html
Hey Cog,
Great writing as always. Just a small semantic correction. DTs are withdrawal from alcohol, not crack.
I agree that the DTs are most commonly associated with alcohol. No analogy is perfect. But DT's can be experienced by people withdrawing from some drugs, something I personally witnessed. That person died an ugly death.
From a title point of view I was trying to instantly convey an idea of death from violent withdrawal. I was successful. Call it poetic license.
The grandiose self/ Narcissus is fueled in addictions. The disorder is more difficult to treat as a results of the defensive tactics on which the grandiose self relies. It uses aggression to coerce others to mirror the grandiose view of itself that is in place nearly all the time, but underside there is extreme shame and vulnerability. Shame the underside of Narcissism by Andrew P. Morrison is the best book on this subject IMO. For me it put the pieces together like no other book. I can observe the insanity now, verses being part of it.
Blessed perspective. We can not see the world until we are able to see oursleves.
And..."In the Name of Peace", Obama will declare two new wars.
Calling Dr Phil-do. “State of mind” addicts. Chemical addiction came calling early in my life. Pain was the catalyst to clean up almost 30 years ago. I had arrived at a place in life where only 2 choices made sense. Clean up or kill myself. If TPTB behavior is the manifestation of addiction we are totally screwed. Just discovered I had some F..ing false hope lurking about. How do you get them all to a motivating level of pain at the same time without becoming a felon? Nice stuff CD, fits like a custom suit. Supercharging my efforts at going off the grid. Removing the engineers doesn’t seem possible.
You captured the essence and dynamic very well, as well as your paralells. I enjoy your writings and takes.
Thank you.
If we are going to talk rather than fight, at least for now, we must find new ways to say the same things. Otherwise we are just background nosie drowned out by the machine.
How can we not see the obvious connection between the word images painted above and our society in general and our leadership and all of us specifically unless we just don’t wish to look?
As we can clearly see, life lived by the average individual is hypnotic; that is , the majority of men and women are not living life as it was intended at all. Not one in a million feels the freedom to live what he or she inwardly feels they should live. Man has come under the world opinion (MSNs) of himself and this world opinion is what they obey, rather than the law of his own being. In this respect and to this degree most are living under a hypnotic spell. Most live under the delusion that they are just merely a sheeple human being, living in a merely material world, and only hopes to escape it through death.
Unfortunately they use failure (unemployed, home foreclosed,etc) brought about by who we already know to simply intensify the the hypnotic condition of the unfortunate mind with more falseness. More and More false material pictures are so impressed upon the now sensitive minds of these people that they are thrown into further layered states of hypnosis, totally devoid of reality and completely mentally assimilated.
Hopefully many ZHrs have noticed that when they speak what they feel, just as when you do what you feel is right, that they are free. Overcoming the mastership (again an illusion) is all a matter of learning to drop all seeming conditions and many here know exactly what I am talking about. try to keep this in mind that the effectiveness of one's life is not so much in what he does but in how he does it and how he does it is determined by the degree of himself that he has rediscovered.
Another great read CD.
Great article CD. I now think I need a drink.
phew! i was thinking "they finally admitted to having a problem! they finally admitted to having a problem!" only took a decade. trust me: Wall Street is really, really, REALLY glad they don't have to run for office. Especially now that the politicians "did the right thing and gave them all our money." Amazingly in the NYTimes I took note of the headline "Wall Street lobbies hard for debt ceiling increase."
I CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPv2toi5og&feature=player_detailpage
simply replace the word "wife" with "government" and then you'll understand me perfectly.
Our addictions define us.
Four of the scarest words ever written. To really understand them requires a very deep look within.......which is not something we 'do'.
Rush rush all day long. Run like hell from ourselves and each other. Don't stop or you might not like what you see.
Thank you for this CD and Mr. Banzai. Painful to even think about much less find a solution for.
There is no way a nation or world can deal with the worlds crooks in any other fashion than termination; addiction or no. A 12 Gauge with 00 shot is the surest most reliable solution to a problem child that threatens millions or even billions.
I understand your point entirely but there can be only one permanent solution. TIME is running out. Milestones
In the last paragraph I very specifically said that we either withdraw support or we take back control. I left the methods used to take back control up to the imagination of the reader.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiJljYRP9hg Musée D'Orsay (1) .
the train station in the final photo was converted into the muse d orsay.
...
hmmm.
Great article, and lots of interesting thoughts and comparisons. Debt requires income, and income requires production. Where's the production?
Great illustration guys. I hope others will join us and understand.
I am addicted to Zero Hedge and I know it will end badly. I'm too far gone for the blue pill to work. Looks like the usual path: Lose job and relationships, become a bum if lucky, or perhaps end up in jail or even dead (in a FEMA camp).
Codependency is a negatively associated label. There is nothing positive about living in a codependent state. I think a more appropriate term you might have been looking for CD is "interdependency". We start out in life as virtually wholly dependent both physically and emotionally on mother/father/grandparents, etc., and eventually need to develop independence so that we can conduct ourselves confidently in the world around us. From there in order to comprehend and extend the needs of necessary empathy not just simple sympathy for each other we must develop interdependency. Codependent is still dependent. Codependent means living your life through some one or some thing, thus still an addict. An interdependent individual has developed the necessary life and emotional skill set to still be who they are but develop reciprocal relationships with others based upon respect, love, care, concern, and boundary recognition. The codependent has no boundaries, and literally neither does the addict. Narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths are constantly intertwined in a codependent, dependent and emotionally addictive state. They haven't grown up and moved through those stages to develop interdependency. Yes a chemical addiction is a very real phenomenon linked to heredity and epigenetics but we still have a measure of control over our lives most of the time. Just my two cents CD, and a great article indeed.