AMERICA’S BIG 3 ADDICTIONS
Johann Wagener 1-16-2013
This is an intervention America. Time to face facts; you are
addicted! All the signs are there! One of the major symptoms of addiction is to
not be in control of things that cause us harm even though we are aware of the
dangers and consequences. Here’s where it begins; someone comes along one day
and convinces you that “more is better”, “greed is good”, “winning is all that
counts” “power is might” and the biggest lie of all, “God is on our side”.
Here, try it! Let’s sell you a home with no money down, you don’t need an
income, it’s easy, just sign here and the “American Dream” is yours for the
taking. You’ll know when it happens; “wants”
turn into “needs” and you find yourself camping out on the street in the front
of an Apple store because you just have to have and iPhone! You line up at a
gun store because you “need” a bigger, more powerful gun to defend yourself
against; who knows what? You drain your
home of every cent of equity because you “need” that SUV or a time-share in
Cancun. Soon, you find yourself “supersizing” everything you eat even though
you don’t fit into your clothes anymore and huff and puff when climbing stairs.
Here’s an example of how it works;
Everyone could use a little help keeping those New Year's resolutions
to slim down. But if it means the government limiting junk food, the response
is an overwhelming, "No." Americans call obesity a national health
crisis and blame too much screen time and cheap fast food for fueling it. But a
new poll finds people are split on how much the government should do to help —
and most draw the line at attempts to force healthier eating.
And, just like any addiction, in order to maintain the high
(which quickly wears off) you begin to “chase” it. That requires doing more,
more often, until a time comes when you are totally consumed by it. Once you’re
hooked, there’s no turning back. Soon you need a “BIGGER” flat screen TV’s, SUV’s,
even a Mc-Mansion with 7 bathrooms for the 2 of you. And, no matter how much
you try, there’s not satisfying the craving. Homes are lost, marriages are
destroyed, jobs are ruined, children are abused and neglected, the American
Dream turns into an American Nightmare. And,
just like with any addiction, it’s only a matter of time before you slam head
on into reality and you plunge from the high into the lowest place one can go.
At that point you have successfully completed the first
phase of the addiction cycle; the “crash.” The crash is usually made up of remorse, reflection,
self-loathing, blame, anger, and lots of promises about how you will not do it
again, you promise. After that comes “recovery” which consists of pleading for
help and depending on those you rejected during the highs; like big government
for example. Where were the regulators, you ask, when you were being ripped off
by the banks , real estate agents, and stock brokers? How could our government allow people like
Bernie Madhoff to rip us off? Now that
you have regained your sanity and are willing to acknowledge your mistakes,
what then? Well, that depends. There are those who realize that, unless they “change”
nothing else will change. Then then are those who retreat back into what the
addiction people call “denial” (which is not the river in Egypt as they say) a psychological
process in which we rearrange reality in such a way that edits or deletes
anything related to the crash and only retains what we experienced during the
high. For these poor souls the cycle continues; first the high, then the crash,
then the recovery, and then? Well, that depends on you.
The 3 worse addictions America suffers from are those
we also most highly protect; 1- Violence (guns)
2- Religion (God) and 3- Stuff (capitalism)
1)
VIOLENCE;
Take guns, for example. Even though we know that our society suffers grave
consequences from our blatant opposition for regulating them we seem unable to
do anything about it. It’s like we have lost control of our senses when it
comes to guns, much like our use of fossils fuels that know are destroying our environment
(and, by default, us). Or, how about our addictive attraction to violence? Be
it in the sports we crave, or the movies and TV shows we watch, or the kind of
games we give our children to play with. One recent example is the NRA
distribution of a video game for kids, 4 yrs. old and up that simulates shooting
at coffin-like targets (see; http://politix.topix.com/homepage/4138-nra-releases-target-practice-game-for-kids-aged-four-and-older
) Only someone addicted to violence would not be able to see the association
between this sort of behavior and that of those who take it to the extreme and literally
massacre our children in our schools, movie theaters, malls, and churches.
2)
RELIGION;
Karl Marx called it “the opiate of the people” because believers are hooked on
the idea that everything that happens to them (or others) is “God’s will” which,
if taken literally, means we are not in control of or responsible for our
actions and their outcomes. Just like
any drug, we use it to make ourselves “feel good” about ourselves, our
behavior, our morals. The more times we survive the crises we create, the more
we crave the idea that God is on our side. Climate change? It’s not us, it’s
God at work changing the environment. Asserting that a woman becoming pregnant
after being raped that it’s a blessing from God? Our Civil War in which we
slaughtered or maimed ourselves in the millions. Well, God was on both sides in
that one. What goes unsaid is that it was “God’s will” to endow us, above all
other living creatures, with “free will.” Not “conditional” will; but free will, leaving
us free to choose between right from wrong, left from right, up from down. God
blessed (or maybe cursed) us with the ability to choose and, with it, made us
solely responsible for the consequences of our choices. Just like an alcoholic abuses, and blames booze
for their problems, people who are dependent on religion, abuse and blame God
for the “man-made” disasters we are faced with. Climate change, gun violence,
poverty, war, are not “acts of God” We
don’t hesitate to scoff the “lone gunman” who claims, “God” told him to do it,
but dare not challenge those that claim it is their “God” given right to own a
gun, no matter what.
We forget that, in essence, God guides, but
doesn’t lead. God doesn’t take too kindly to be used as a scapegoat. Free will
leaves it up to us to decide which way we go.
3)
STUFF;
If religion is the opiate of the people then “capitalism” as we know it, is the “crack
cocaine” of the people. Just like the Drug Cartels and Big Pharma who we can
thank for hooking us on drugs themselves we can credit our “greed is good” Wall
Street mentality for hooking us on “stuff.” Surprisingly our biggest dealers is China. There
no question that every home in America is stuffed with stuff “made in China” And,
as a result, the Chinese have become our #1 creditor. Without firing a shot,
the Chinese have successfully enslaved us to stuff from which they have made a
tremendous profit in flooding us with useless junk that ends up in pollution
filled landfills or a rented storage space we waste more of our hard earned
money on. Public Storage, which is only one of thousands of storage companies,
proudly boasts;
Public
Storage built its first self-storage facility in 1972. Today it operates over
2,200 unique and diverse company-owned locations in the United States and
Europe, totaling more than 142
million net rentable square feet of real estate. Its PS Business Parks
interest adds another 28 million (approx.)
rentable square feet of commercial and industrial space. Based on
number of tenants, Public Storage is among the largest landlords in the world. (see; http://www.publicstorage.com/storage-company-info.aspx
Until recently the Chinese were “dealers” not
“users”. Unfortunately they have
violated a dealers cardinal rule; don’t sample the product. In Chairman Mao’s day the majority of the
Chinese population rode bicycles which was practically a pollution free form of
transportation and had the added benefit of keeping the riders in good physical
shape; no gym membership required. Now, like us, the Chinese are hooked on
stuff and, like us, are suffering the consequences. By replacing those efficient
bicycles with gas guzzling, smog polluting SUV’s that they plow down the streets
of Beijing while munching down on a “super-sized Big Mac (much like a story
book scene of “Main Street America.”)
they are not only becoming obese but are literally choking on the air they breathe;
all side effects of stuff addiction.
These are but a few of the signs of America’s
addictions and if we dare take a closer look, we will surely find many more
that fit easily fit the definition. If, as God intended, and as President Obama
recently advised, decide to not “change” the direction we are going in we can
rest assured that, as with most addictions, there will be no happy ending to
the American Experience.
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