The loss of a source of meaning in life is a dangerous thing, especially if it isn't replaced by something else. That way lies nihilism, and, if the thesis of the article is to be believed, opiod addiction.
Nihilism is a high-brow thing for high-brow people. You're right that it is a dangerous thing, but I think before nihilism, for most it leads to depression, anxiety, anomie, and then all sorts of destructive self-medication.
Well, it depends on what you believe is the culprit, but the easy scape goats are long debunked at this point.
We will some day realize that the psychological situation of income inequality (or other socioeconomic equivalences) is the root of drug epidemics.
The sooner that happens, the better, because neither incarceration or isolated treatment can address this.
Everyone grows up with different experiences and I think being raised different would have delayed where I’m at with this but I have worried for a long time that particular increases of drug use cannot happen purely due to availability of the substance. It doesn’t make sense in the narratives I’ve witnessed, mainly referring to what motivates mass drug use, accounting for lushes and party behavior as constants.
I have never been a drug user but have observed my friends use and have lost a few of them when I was younger.
It simply doesn’t happen in healthy social environments.
I am a motivated and passionate person. My life always has goals and ideas floating around. When I was younger, sometimes my friends didn’t keep up, or something like that. Every time I have lost a friend to drugs(death or otherwise), it was preceded by me acknowledging they no longer felt the hope and excitement for the future we had once shared. In retrospect, it usually correlated with something in their life they were ashamed of, a harsh reality or realization that they didn’t have certain opportunities. It could be small but still have big repercussions. I have felt shame for thinking I may have overwhelmed them with my dreaming, higher-than-average curiosity or motivation for constructive activities. Although I am that weirdo, it doesn’t usually send people to drug use. What does is usually private and disguised in shame.
The monster here is loss of hope.
I have learned this argument usually comes across as either fleeting or ideological. It’s very hard to put into words to someone with another comprehension of the problem, and witnessing one or two people face substance abuse doesn’t bring it home either. I developed this view from watching how crowds of people use drugs. When you isolate the party people and the lushes, you are left with people who simply feel like they don’t count.
> When you isolate the party people and the lushes, you are left with people who simply feel like they don’t count.
Correct, which is why fixing income inequality will not solve this problem. Giving someone basic income or access to safety nets doesn't give them the meaning derived from earning a living through hard work and creativity, it doesn't bring back all the friends that moved away, it doesn't replace fallen communal institutions or religious identity. In fact, these locales consistently vote against any sort of government intervention which may provide services which suggests that they don't want what you are trying to provide.
A naive solution which might help is formation of a large infrastructure program providing good jobs, consolidation of gutted communities, government funded social spaces and encouragement of community leaders to use them etc.
This seems like a step closer to a world where society pays half of people to dig holes and the other half to fill them in, all because of this inescapable idea that a living is something that must be earned.
Fixing income inequality might not give people meaning, but it might free them from financial constraints and give them the opportunity to go out and find that meaning, rather that being trapped in this cycle of always needing to make ends meet.
Long term I agree, we need societal change, but changing perceptions about the meaning of work is a multi-generational problem. We need a solution which is going to fix this problems over 10-20 years. It's going to be far easier to get traction if you are providing things which conform to peoples' existing belief systems, rather than dictating to them that their belief systems are wrong and need to change.
You argue that the drug epidemic is the result of income inequality, but then go on to say it's loss of hope that's the problem. Are you arguing that income inequality is the cause of this loss of hope, thus drug addiction?
