Word Abuse - Addiction

There are many words in the English language which are misused and abused.  One of my favorites is myriad, which seems to have really gained popularity with media talking heads.  This word is an adjective - like big, or green, or loud.  It does not require a preposition.  But this is an abuse of mechanics; not meaning.

What I find more aggravating is when people abuse words for purposes of exaggeration.  They want to express their feelings about something, so they use the most powerful word they can find. Obviously, the word awesome has been done to death.

Today, I want to talk about addiction.  This word is most commonly used regarding the use of a habit-forming substance; something that is clearly harmful to the body and which will result in withdrawal symptoms when the person quits or reduces usage of said substance. Opiates and alcohol immediately come to mind as examples.

Unfortunately, this is not the scenario to which people refer when they talk/brag about their affection for things like:  chocolate, junk food, pastries, or sex, but they will insist that they are indeed addicted to them.  Rubbish.

Addiction - in the form of a craving, yen, or passion - is a normal human condition.  Anything that feels good, or that we like the taste of, we generally want more of.  Sorry for the grammar, there, but that's the way it is.  If it brings us any kind of pleasure, we want more.  But the point is that this passion or affection is not limited to just food or physical pleasure; it can include other common, popular leisure activities - lawn care, football, hunting, fishing…the list is endless.  But again, people will insist that they are indeed addicted to ________ whatever.

Actual addiction is - above all else - a rather pathetic or hopeless state of being; not just a matter of lack of will power.  What many people suffer from is simply a lack of (or refusal to exercise) moderation.  A little is good, so more is better.  Addiction occurs when your particular passion takes control of your life such that it affects the quality of your work, your job attendance, your duties and obligations to employer and family.  At that point, you're probably in need of some professional counseling or a big wake-up call.

For most of us, things like chocolate, junk food, sex, or even alcohol are not a big problem.  We put things in perspective.  Life is a series of ups and downs, of anticipation and satiation.  Steak usually tastes better if you don't eat every day. Hunger can be a good thing.

I think what people infer when they use the word addiction is that they are not to blame for their actions, for their excesses because….well…they're addicted.

Bollocks.  Moderation - a form of mental balance - requires effort, and that is the part some don't like.  Indulgence isn't a matter of effort (although energy is expended); it's just an abandonment of control.  

Having a passion for something (or somebody) does not mean that one jettisons all sense of control.  

I think we misuse the word addiction in the same sense as the word love.

What we really mean is, we just like it a lot.

Truth be told, at the end of the day, we're ALL addicted to something or other. The only thing that makes the difference is that most of us are in control of our addictions.  And the rest - they don't seem to know when enough is enough; that you can only get so high in the moment, that there should be moderation and periods of non-indulgence.  Most everything in Life is defined by contrasts; hot/cold, light/dark, up/down.  But for too many, a hundred is not enough and one is too many.  And that's true for everything, not just alcohol.

Some Thoughts This Holiday Season

The other day, I ran into this rather hateful person on another internet blogging platform.  She was an interesting person; seemingly well spoken, either a nurse or some other kind of professional in the health care system, very positive in her sexuality, but one of the more hateful atheists I've run across in a while.  It wasn't just enough to believe or not believe and just coexist; there had to be bashing and ridicule involved.  And that just rubbed me wrong.

I told her it's entirely possible for either an atheist or theist world to devolve into a screaming murder festival.  The religious leader sends his people into battle because he thinks his god commanded it.  And the Stalins and Maos of the world do the same because they see their people as nothing more than meaty fuel to be ground up to feed the machinery of the State.  But in both cases, the people are equally dead.

There are good (and bad) people on either side of the argument.  Atheists have people like Warren Buffet who donated over $40,000K to humanitarian causes. Bill Gates who donated over $27 billion to global health and education.  Believers have people like Mother Theresa, Albert Schweitzer, MLK, John D. Rockefellar.  All these people - for one reason or another - believed in generosity and philanthropy.  And then, atheists have people like Jeffrey Dahmer, Mao, Stalin, Ted Kaczynski.  Believers have shitstains like Fred Phelps, al-Zawahiri, the KKK, and New England witch hunters.

I told this woman that atheists experience SOME sense of morality.  When somebody hustles you out of $10 on ebay, you don't nod and say,"Interesting. This fellow lacks the genetic predisposition toward equitable dealing that generations of sexual selection in favor of social behavior has instilled in the rest of us."  Hell, no!  You're pissed. You think what that guy did was wrong.  You want justice. You think he should have acted differently.

I told her that even though there's no wrong molecule floating in the air and there's no justice element on the Periodic Table, you think a swindler should have acted some other way, according to some invisible ideal that everybody is aware of and knows about.

Life is not all a matter of cold, hard reason. We all have a little crazy in our worlds, and we all depend on some fantasy that floats outside the boundaries of cold reason.  What about that notion, free will?  To a neuroscientist, that's as real as the Tooth Fairy.  But if there's nothing beyond the physical, then your ability to choose your actions vanishes along with God, heaven and the angels.

Atheists hate wars, genocide, dictators, dishonest corporations and sexist male assholes.  They hate all that because they know that the ability to have empathy for other humans is the only thing that separates us from the cockroaches.  Don't even get me started on the GOP.

I was twelve years old when JFK was sworn into office.  At that fairly innocent and naive age, I thought that education, reason and brotherly love could solve all our nation's (let alone the world's) problems.  And two years later, I saw JFK assassinated, followed by his brother, Bobby.  Then, the loss of MLK.

So, at this holiday season, I still believe in the power of love and education, but no doubt the hateful shitstains of the world - atheist AND believer - will just fuck things up for the rest of us; the non-believers and believers (at any level) who aren't hateful bastards.  People who have no interest in converting anyone else.  People who just want to live their lives in peace.

Season's greetings and love to you all.