i’ve been thinking about this challenge

by Regular Joseph , Saturday, November 03, 2018, 08:54 (2706 days ago) @ Mike (bart)

and to be honest felt like I needed to step out and take care of regular life for a bit, but dang of i don’t like how you got me going mikebart.

I work in addiction, and one of the funny things about it is that you have (well i think you should) to hold a theory that a person is both fully responsible for their own decisions and able to will something different but simultaneously “powerless to their addiction” as the 12 steps say. The upshot of this is that in treatment we do our best to create structures that impinge on patient’s choice through drug treatment or systems of accountability etc while also working through counseling to empower them to make the right choices. People who mature into recovery sometimes reach a sort of mystical clarity about their flaws and capabilities that I rarely see and honestly envy.

I think it is appropriate to associate drug addiction - our nation’s drug addiction epidemic - and our nations right wing, nationalist racist, whatever epidemic. For some reason, the structures are in place for people to make terrible decisions. Someone might choose to do heroin or support a racist politician and I guess my reaction to either is the same: to attempt understanding, mercy, and help. Accountability is a part of that.

This essay came through my reading this morning and provides one argument for how we got here https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/how-hollow-speech-enables-hostile-speech-and-what-t...

I agree there has been a concerted effort to subvert the ability of our people and our society to guide itself and this has coupled with the rise of the internet and social media to allow for amplification of the impulsive and diminution of considered, reflective action. We need to address all these structures as well as hold people we know personally accountable to get out of this spot, and as we do, I’ll continue to hope in the growth of people currently adopting racism as a drug.

PS I would think the hollow vs healthy speech argument above would be more resonant on this board where most, if not all, of us aspire to or were raised with Catholic idea of chastity no matter how we fail to live it. I always find my reaction to a particular ACLU cause, as mentioned in the essay, a good gut-check on this. I always figured most people, Catholic or not, felt a similar whiplash with the ACLU, though maybe I’m wrong about that.

Now I’m not gonna say anything else until I’ve allowed myself to watch ND and Alabama tonight. (kind of addictive, yeah?)