Just when you thought Americans had covered all the bases in addicted behavior, a Reno, Nevada couple blew the doors off the barn. According to a story by the Associated Press:
"A couple authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect.
The children of Michael and Iana Straw, a boy age 22 months and a girl age 11 months, were severely malnourished and near death last month when doctors saw them after social workers took them to a hospital, authorities said. Both children are doing well and gaining weight in foster care, prosecutor Kelli Ann Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Michael Straw, 25, and Iana Straw, 23, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts each of child neglect. Each faces a maximum 12-year prison sentence.
Viloria said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing "Dungeons & Dragons" series, to give their children proper care.
"They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games," Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal."
In his new book, "High Society", former Carter administration Health and Human Services Secretary, James Califano, Jr., takes on a subject which is the elephant of elephants in the American living room, that of addiction and substance abuse. In the prologue, Califano writes:
"It is hard to find an American family or circle of friends that substance abuse has not touched directly. Although we are 4 percent of the world's population, we Americans consume 65 percent of the world's illegal drugs. One in four Americans will have an alcohol problem at some point in his or her life. And most of these people have parents, children, friends, and colleagues who will suffer collateral damage."
This is a subject I can speak intimately about. Some years back, I surrendered to the fact that I was, indeed, a drug addict. Luckily, I found my way into a 12 Step-based program of recovery, which helps me to remain drug-free, a day at a time. During my years in recovery, I've done a good deal of thinking about the nature of addiction, its distinction as a disease, why me, and why so many Americans.
Addiction is a disease of the soul; a "spiritual sickness", if you will. While a good deal of research has recently revealed that addicts do indeed suffer psychological symptoms, relating to abnormal regulation of dopamine levels in the brain, those effects emerge after years of drug use. I'm more concerned with the root causes of addiction. And those are found in one's soul.
It really makes no difference what my drug of choice was that brought me into recovery, for the sake of this discussion, because my gateway drug was not a substance at all, but an activity. At a very young age, I became addicted to watching television. I know what you're thinking. "How can I call television a drug", right? Well, I've come to believe that anything that separates me from my feelings/my higher self/my spirit, which I employ obsessively and habitually, is, in fact, a drug. What else could I call it?
If you accept my understanding of what a drug is (if not, play along for the discussion anyway), really anything can become a drug. Let's list a few. Eating. Working. Gambling (this one is rotten). Sports. Exercise. Sex. Shopping. Relationships. Electronic Media (TV, Internet, video games, etc). I can go on, but I'm sure you get the picture.
So, if we take Mr. Califano's statistic, that Americans use 65 percent of the world's drugs, and combine it with all the other "drugs" we're addicted to, there's only one question that remains for me: if America is really the "land of the free and the home of the brave", WHAT THE HELL ARE WE RUNNING AWAY FROM?
In the preamble to our Constitution, Thomas Jefferson wrote the following:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
We all just want to be happy, right? When Jefferson offered us that possibility, I wonder, given our freedoms and rights, if he thought we'd ultimately have trouble figuring out where and how to find it.
Sages, prophets, and philosophers throughout history have taught that attaining happiness is an inside job. There's nothing outside of ourselves, no person, place, or thing that can provide us anything other than a fleeting sense of satisfaction. Yet, modern America is built upon the illusion that happiness can be purchased (at Bloomingdale's, I presume?). Our economy runs on the promise that if we keep shopping we'll reach that illusive pearl on the horizon. We're brainwashed to believe that happiness is the result of quantitative attainment (how big is your plasma TV?). But it's a grand lie. And, I believe, it's a prime cause of our societal malaise; why we need to numb ourselves.
It's often trumpeted that America is the "most religious nation in the world". I'm not sure what that means exactly, but, in my experience, we're the least spiritual society on the planet. Happiness, from a spiritual perspective, is not found in the quantitative accumulation of things, but in a qualitative attitude towards one's self, family, work, and community. It's that understanding that makes us free. Let's reclaim it, before it's too late.
Craig Gordon
But I realize this is not a world meant for me,
until the moment when I am set free.
Better get used to it.
- Jules Shear
