The packaging of addiction.

What is addiction?

The term addiction refers to being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit forming (especially [but not limited to] alcohol or narcotic drugs).

With addiction comes the usual abnormally strong craving. So addiction also refers to abnormally strong cravings.

Who is an addict?

An addict is a person who is physiologically dependent on a substance. The abrupt deprivation or removal of which, produces withdrawal symptoms. An addict can further be described as someone who is so devoted to something that it resembles an addiction for example TV drama(s) like “LOST”, “24” of just TV programs in general.

I am an addict and so are you! Yes, you are! When we hear the word addict or when we learn that someone is an addict, we all get up on our high horse(s) and become judgmental of such persons because all we can imagine is an “IRRESPONSIBLE” individual, forgetting that we all are “ADDICTS”.

Imagine someone who doesn’t feel the he/she can function to full capacity or adequately if he/she doesn’t have a puff at some sticks of cigarettes before doing his job, or takes intermittent short breaks just to refresh him/herself believing that the cigarettes actually help clear the mind of worries thus giving one the ability to concentrate on ones work or chores.

Another individual can’t seem to keep awake or do anything meaningful before the regular intake of coffee. The caffeine from the coffee helps to keep this individual awake and optimally active. So, for this individual, coffee is a not just a welcome delight but a life saver because he is completely “USELESS” without it.

There are others who are addicted to other substances like sweets, chocolates, beer, food, cola, tea, meat, sex, curse-words or swearing and like stated earlier television.

Look here! Addiction is addiction. It doesn’t matter what the substance craved for is. As long as you have an addiction to something [or anything], you have no moral justification to stand in judgment of a fellow addict regardless of whether or not his substance of abuse is stronger or weaker, inferior or superior, prescribed by a doctor or bought over the counter, bought in a pharmacy or purchased on the streets. Addiction is addiction.

Your substance may be cigarettes and another’s may be marijuana, what difference does it make? You both puff on something to give you a sense of worth and your life a meaning. I bet you who puffs regularly on cigarettes don’t consider yourself irresponsible and that is simply because you think that cigarette are not harmful, do not affect your attitude or judgment. It may not do any of these things but it does affect the way you “SMELL”.

You can keep deceiving yourself that you are more responsible than your neighbour because she is always high on crack cocaine but you forget that you are also hi half the time on prescription drugs. Please, addiction is addiction is addiction and the substance of abuse doesn’t matter.

You spend on cigarettes and she on Indian-hemp. You are addicted to nicotine and she to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). You both are enjoying some form of euphoria and you both are doing harm to your bodies. Neither is more responsible than the other. You both roll up your hard earned cash (if it is actually earned and not stolen) and set it alight just a few minutes of pleasure. You bask in the smoke and odour of your chosen substance of abuse.

What is the difference if you are high on pain killers or prescription drugs and the next man is high on cocaine, crack or methamphetamines? You are both as high as the empire state building, equally dangerous to society and neither has the moral standing to judge the other.

Addiction to food and [or] beverages. Well, whether you like it or not, whether you accept it as a fact or not, the abnormally strong craving for food or beverages also counts as addiction. So, we have two people on the same highway, one is addicted to hamburgers and the other to cola [soda / carbonated drinks]. Their common destination is obesity and its attendant conditions.

I hope by now you see my point, which is that the kettle cannot afford to call the pot black. You cannot and do not have the moral standing to judge anyone as being an addict if you have an addiction to anything yourself.

That your substance is weaker or less harmful does not automatically confer on you the title of “Responsible” because regardless of the weakness of your chosen substance of abuse, you are just as irresponsible as the one with a strong substance of abuse. 

You are both addicts and you must get off your high horse, accept the fact, wean yourself off your habit, lend a helping hand and stop judging. We must understand how this happens and learn how to stop it from happening because there are other corporations getting fat back accounts as a result  of our addiction(s). 

Children and adults alike watch and see various commercials on  TV and we all want to try whatever it is that we see on TV. like eat a Big Mac, smoke Marlboro, drink Kirin beer, etc because the media makes it look cool. It is this packaging of vices as cool that is gradually taking its toll on our society. The movies glorify crooks so children want to be crooks, the dramas glorify indecent exposure so, the youth want to go about half naked and the adults are took busy to cook so everything instant is welcomed never minding the negative effect(s) that instant everything have on our health situation because of all the additives needed to keep the instant "everythings" from going bad.

When Japanese ate healthy Japanese delicacies, Japanese lived healthy lives but now look around you.......every ailment conceivable is on the rise. Cancer, diabetes, gout, hypertension, obesity etc.

I'll leave you to think up a proper end to this write up while I think up a plausible solution to this potentially disastrous issue. 

The Cart and the Horse and Reins.

I love history. I recall that as a child I would listen to my dad as he told stories about things that had happened in the past and things that he had read in his history books when he was still a college student. What really amazed me was how he was able to pull out the dates as accurately as they were recorded in the textbooks. He could go on and on for hours, talking about history and also drawing the geographical maps that supported the history of the different times and events he talked about.

Today, I listen to a lot of so called experts and professors and I am mostly dumb struck when I hear them passing off their own conclusions and opinions as true history of events. Like say in the case of the Sino-Japanese war with especial reference to Nanking, the events before, during and after. Of the alleged atrocities (I write alleged because I am not an eye witness of the events of that time), I have often heard these men express opinions about the atrocities meted out on women with this simple cliché “it was war”. The rape and dehumanization of women [and children] (non combatant enemy population). 

Let’s not forget that all these acts occurred after the Geneva Convention was already in place. I wonder how that word ‘war’ can be invoked as the justification for the dehumanization, degradation and rape of women and where possible children (?).

The nations involved in this dastardly act are all signatories to the Geneva Convention. In the case of what happened several years ago, and the response in defense of those acts made by so called experts and professors, with another very common example being “The number of women who were affected were only about 500 and or the number has been exaggerated”. I tend to wonder what it matters if only 50 and not 500 or not 5,000 women were raped, some even tied to chairs naked and served up for anyone who had a “hard-on”. Some were rather so unfortunate that instead of penises, their privates were penetrated with bayonets and all sorts of imaginable and unimaginable objects. So this is war? !

I titled this piece, the Cart and the Horse and Reins because people do not seem to understand that a history we do not learn from is a history we are bound to repeat. The reins represent the truth, which should be the guiding principle for everything that we do. The truth is supposed to guide the way and manner in which we relate the events of the past, no doctoring, no embellishing, and no misrepresentations of any sort.

The horse represents every individual trotting on in life (we humans though we may deny it are all as stubborn as horse, we want to what want to do when we want to do it. That is why we need the reins to direct us in everything that we want to do.

The Cart is the luggage (history) that we carry or pull along (individually and collectively). Everyone has got a history, personal and collective. We all have a past, as individuals and as nations. The cart is drawn or pulled behind us because it represents our past and we cannot afford to forget it but at the same time we must not let it be the focus of our attention. 

Anyone going forward looking back never reaches his destination. Anyone going forward looking back is bound to become a casualty.

The past is drawn behind as a reminder of events past and as a source to draw wisdom and strength from. When you look at the past critically, it guarantees that you would not make or repeat the mistakes of the past.

The reason we have history is not so that we can distort it but so that we and posterity can learn from it and it is learning from history and taking the right steps based on what we have learned and guided by the reins of truth that we can guarantee that mankind would not self destruct.

The Sino-Japanese war is long over; most of the participants are long gone. What we have left is history. We must collectively make the decision to embrace peace, forgiveness and brotherhood after all that what we all are BROTHERS!

China cannot continue to dwell in the 1914s and 1935s; it is time to come out into the light! Japan embraced peace a long time ago and has continued on that path for a very long time now regardless of provocative moves from various quarters. However, even dogs, when pushed to the wall always fight back.

Japan has been there and has suffered more devastation from nuclear war than any nation on this planet and is therefore experienced enough to educate any nation that NOTHING good comes out of Nuclear war. These resources we claim and fight about were there before we were born or formed. These resources were put there to bring us together in PEACE (through sharing with our BROTHERS) rather than WAR.

It is foolishness for us to continue the foolishness of our ancestors and parents and previous generations by engaging in war, hating and killing a fellow man you never met because someone told you that you need what is on his side of the fence or just because you have the might to. Have you tried asking him to let you have some of it?

Look around you and at other continents around you. I am most certain that you would find nations that have been at war for no less than 20 or 30 years. Do you like what you see? Is that the kind of life you would like to leave for your children or their children’s children?

Does anything look good in those nations that have been ravaged by war for the past 30 years? I am sure that what you saw there are the 4Ds; 

Destruction, Disaster, Diseases and DEATH.

NOTHING GOOD COMES FROM WAR !