Zeitgeist: Moving Forward Page #4

One reason that the

biological explanation for violence...

one reason that hypothesis is

potentially dangerous, it's not just misleading

it can really do harm...

is because if you believe that

you could very easily say:

Well, there's nothing we can do

to change the predisposition

people have to becoming violent;

all we can do is punish them - lock them up

or execute them

but we don't need to worry about changing the

social environment or the social preconditions

that may lead people to become violent because

that's irrelevant'.

The genetic argument allows us the luxury of ignoring

past and present historical and social factors

and in the words of Louis Menand

who wrote in the New Yorker

Very astutely, he said:

it's all in the genes... an explanation for the way things are

that does not threaten the way things are.

Why should someone feel unhappy

or engage in antisocial behavior

when that person is living in the

freest and most prosperous nation on Earth?

It can't be the system.

There must be a flaw in the wiring somewhere.

Which is a good way of putting it.

So, the genetic argument is simply a cop-out

which allows us to ignore

the social and economic and political factors

that, in fact, underlie

many troublesome behaviors.

[Case Study:
Addiction]

Addictions are usually

considered to be a drug-related issue

but looking at it more broadly

I define addiction as any behavior

that is associated with craving

with temporary relief

and with long-term negative consequences

along with an impairment of control over it so that the person

wishes to give it up or promises to do so

but can't follow through

and when you understand that, you see that

there are many more addictions

than simply those related to drugs.

There's workaholism; addiction to shopping;

to the Internet; to video games...

There's the addiction to power. People that have power but they

want more and more; nothing is ever enough for them.

Acquisition - corporations that must own more and more.

The addiction to oil

or at least to the wealth and to the products made

accessible to us by oil.

Look at the negative consequences on the environment.

We are destroying the very earth that we

inhabit for the sake of that addiction.

Now, these addictions are far more

devastating in their social consequences

than the cocaine or heroin habits of my downtown Eastside patients.

Yet, they are rewarded and considered to be respectable.

The tobacco company executive that shows a higher profit

will get a much bigger reward.

He doesn't face any negative consequences legally or otherwise.

In fact he is a respected member of

the board of several other corporations.

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