Use and abuse (of drugs and power) What do you do when you give candy to a baby? The refined sugar, a substance concentrate, tastes so good the baby wants more. The baby has his first drug addiction. If the sugar is continued the baby’s fat molecules will be larger then they would have been without a childhood sugar habit. The result is a lower rate of metabolism, which means an increased chance of adult obesity. Obesity is second only to cigarettes as a cause of death. Oh how easy it is to screw up.
Society 1900
The agricultural families were victims of the environment. All the men, women and children spent all of their time working. The industrial families were little more than wage slaves who had failed at farming. All the men, women and children spent most of their time working. As long as the entrepreneur succeeded they succeeded. The wage slaves had some luxury.
There were few entrepreneurs. It was hard for an entrepreneur to fail. The entrepreneur had many luxuries. They were the nobility. Farmers, industrial families, and entrepreneurs alike were lucky if they lived to 45 years old.
By today’s standard, everyone, except the entrepreneur, was abused.Society 1950
The entrepreneur could fail or succeed. They were like the agricultural family. They were both dependent upon the environment that included the free market.
The industrial families were laborers.
The environment had been good and produced much luxury shared by the majority. The chief luxury was leisure. One laborer could feed, shelter and clothe his family. Children, freed from child labor by the “ Communist Manifesto” and not yet burdened by homework as a result of “ a Nation at Risk “ grew up without abuse. Homemakers, freed from labor by automatic washing machines, vacuum cleaners and the like were attentive to their children and do gooder projects. Minorities suffered. With luck people lived 67 years.
When a child went to school he was exposed to knowledge which he could not find anywhere else. It aroused his curiosity, which motivated him. No one pushed him to learn more. There was no need.
These relatively unabused and secure children became the flower children of the 60’s. Not only did they want peace and love; they promoted it. Lots of reforms actually got done. Some failed.
In the 70‘s “A Nation at Risk” justified working our children as a necessity to strengthen our country in the face of anticipated aggression. Children were put to hard work in school.Society 2000
From five years old our education system requires homework. It takes two workers to feed, shelter and clothe a family.
Longevity has evolved as a result of expensive health care and expensive drug care. The medical profession and the drug companies have such a hold that they must be honored. People with medical insurance live 90 years.
There is much active leisure and much wealth. Political solutions to the problems that had been noticed are in place. The political system still delivers solutions to those few problems that get notoriety as slowly as ever.How did we get a drug problem?
Our society behaves as if most of us were abused children. This is understandable.
Education and parenting discipline form has changed from guidance to punishment and reward. It is not that a few are abused but rather almost all are somewhat abused. It is not that a few are denied responsibility, but rather no student is given responsibility.
Some of these children have become disruptive to themselves and the educational community. . If you beat someone into submission forcing him or her to live within these boundaries then you punish. If you beat someone but they do not fall into submission then your beating is a vengeance. This drives the kindness from the untouchable class. Beware the injured tiger.
They also carry guns to school and shoot each other. More time is necessary in keeping order than in teaching material. The privacy of a locker must be released to the necessity of order. They responded to punishment rather than righteousness. Where the students used to be the order keepers now there is a network of punishment leading to the vice-principal. No wonder our government has led to the same thing. The next time you read of a high school student committing suicide, killing a teacher or acting out with violence for no apparent reason ask if this is consistent with the model for an abused child. If the violence takes place at school ask what the school is doing to abuse the child.
Our children from first grade are given work to do at home. They are conditioned to keep busy at play or work. All free time is filled. Even play is organized. Eventually our children become us.
Having been trained to accept rather than consider we lack personal judgment. There is much luxury and dependence upon it.
We have no true leisure. When we are not working we fill our minds with television or reading or listening to music or sport or other programmed activity.
Rather we are addicted to entertainment and play. We fear the emptiness. There is prayer without meditation. There is no sitting or lying. There is no idleness. There is no time for consideration. We are so conditioned by luxury that leisure without it is lonely so we buy entertainment instead. Some of what we buy is illegal.
Our police waste their time on these things and neglect the policing that needs doing. Our courts are partisan. Our president launches a preemptive strike and kills children without the approval of congress. The meaning of words is unclear. Hypocrisy abounds. More innocents are in jail than ever. Hope for fair play is as low as it was in the last prohibition. Apathy and hopelessness abound. There is corruption everywhere as there was in the previous prohibition.
Our television heroes are disobedient punishers. When we do talk we exchange moments of self-importance that are as often lies as not. We make critiques like this one complaining about everything.
In the midst of all this we have found the fountain of youth. It is expensive. Not only do we wage a losing war with the virus, but most old people take drugs to prolong their life or improve its’ quality. And the pipers are the medical professional and the licensed drug companies who must be paid.
What has emerged is a prohibitionist society, a destructive educational system, and misunderstood longevity.
However, if the standard is to live long and prosper, then the human race is in the most advanced state of its existence.Addiction
People addicted to work, reading, doing good deeds or raising children do not consider their characteristics addictions. Yet as long as we fill our lives with activity and choose to do some things more often than other things we live with our addictions. Addiction is a judgment.
To think about what you are not doing is to obsess. To continue to do without thinking is to compulse. We are all somewhat obsessive and compulsive. When a specific obsession is a burden then it is called an addiction. Judge the burden.
To change an addiction replace it with another. To stop doing something leaves an emptiness, that is an imbalance. Mind altering drugs, a spiritual experience, can be replaced by prayer and meditation. To be balanced I should point that prayer and meditation can probably be replaced by mind-altering drugs. When I judge the burden of each I prefer prayer and meditation. With neither there is hopelessness which no one deserves. It seems that someone suffering from hopelessness should have a legal alternative they can afford. THC exists.The western approach. Treat the symptoms.
To live in a state of increased reality and decreased fantasy increase activity. We have become a very active animal. When doing a routine and mechanical task replace fantasy with music. Many people are lost without background music. When doing a boring task think about a pleasure, that is think positively. If living is a boring task obsess about pleasure. If pleasure is boring behave compulsively so as not to notice the emptiness left by a weak fantasy. Use drugs to correct chemical imbalance.
The eastern approach. Balance the life forces.
Learn to fantasize. Rediscover consideration. Add meditation to prayer. Add yoga. Consider leisure a luxury. Join loving fellowships. Take therapy. Reconstruct yourself.
My addictions
I was raised being told to finish my plate. Now I have to constantly pay attention to what I eat. I use the eastern cure. I change myself in spirit through habit formation. It is a religious adventure with others who have my addiction. My church for this is Overeaters Anonymous.
My church for my alcoholism is Alcoholics Anonymous. Again this is the eastern cure, a change in spirit through habit supported by a loving fellowship. Alcohol and drugs finish fourth in cause of death.
My cholesterol is too high. My blood pressure is too high. A respected nurse has told me that if I exercised more often I would not have a blood pressure and cholesterol problem, the eastern cure. I use drugs instead to deal with these problems, the western cure.
The first time I stopped smoking cigarettes I used my will power. I continuously felt like a cigarette and after six years and one cigarette I went back to smoking. The second time I stopped smoking successfully I changed myself in spirit as well as habit. The desire for a cigarette was lifted. However, I am not going to test myself by having a cigarette. Part of my spiritual awakening is an awareness of my weakness.
At puberty I became obsessed with mating. Social discipline forced me to conform into becoming a husband, which at best keeps the obsession at bay. Not until I had to deal with impotence pending from cancer was the obsession reduced. I suspect it will never be removed.
I watch television daily. I do not intend to change this habit.
It seems that it is a matter of judgment whether you want to keep or change a behavior. It seems it is a matter of judgment whether you want to change yourself to accept a change in behavior or take a drug to change your behavior or attitude. All those religious freaks like myself prefer the eastern approach or, like myself, have found no drug to do the job for them and, by default, have chosen the eastern approach. The Western approach, the taking of drugs, is the simple direct cure for what ails you. But the drugs have side effects, which can be worse than the problem. This means the difference between the use and abuse is a matter of judgment. No one knows. Know yourself, consider the facts and take your best guess.
With each obsession there has been the fear “what will life be without it? ” The natural cure that comes with age is to wonder rather than fear.What should we do now?
Free marijuana from its present classification. Start a testing program for the approval of marijuana derivative THC to treat adult onset hopelessness in addition to all those things it is suspected of aiding. This should sidestep the negative effects of tar, deliver some profit to the drug companies through process patents and leave the control in the hands of doctors. It should make the drug available to the hopelessly terminal cancer patient as well as the hopeless; those with critically demanding abusive temperaments.
Stop homework for children under fourteen and re introduce consideration. Throw in a little medical patent law reform, some in school teacher parenting, a touch of honesty, and a whole lot of hope and we have a chance for something better. As a government we have dealt with every one of these problems before and solved them. We are as perfect as ever. We are perfect idiots.
For now I will settle by encouraging California to continue the medicinal use of marijuana. I will encourage the federal government to make it price prohibitive to sell cigarettes to children. I am against funding based on standardized testing of students. I am for alternative schools, especially those schools that encourage creativity. I will openly criticize the giving of homework to children under twelve for this nation is not at risk. I favor judges with discretion; teachers that parent, and people who change their mind.