Monday links

Not “good cops”, but nice cops.

Some interesting things in the article on addiction, and I’ll have to go back to look at some of the links, but it seems obvious this author still doesn’t really understand the problem, let alone the solution.

As with almost everything else in medicine, the very definition of “addiction” is not even close to settled science. That’s because there are so many diverse factors, and not all apply to everyone. Scientists don’t really yet understand the brain’s chemistry, or the immune system, or many other things in the physical body, and are a long, long way from understanding much about human cognition and emotions. So no, the “disease” explanation for substance abuse, whether it is truly “addiction” or not, just isn’t going to cut it – though that may have a part in the equation.

The idea that social pressures and economic status drives all or most of the addiction problem is of no more use than the “disease” model unless one accepts the fact that the REASON for the poverty and social status is the lack of individual liberty, self ownership and true self responsibility. And that, of course, is true in Beverly Hills as much as in the ghettos of Chicago. The manifestations are often different, but the true “disease” is the same.

The infection they all suffer from is the entrenched, carefully indoctrinated belief that “someone (or something) else” is ultimately responsible for them and their behavior and that some other people have a legitimate authority to control their lives and property…. And I’m sure those controllers believe that with all their hearts as well.

That’s because there are so many diverse factors, and not all apply to everyone.

This is what gets left out in most addiction models. The people writing them look for The Problem so they can discover The Solution.

But people are individuals. Drugs affect them in different ways, and they handle he effects of drugs in different ways, just like they handle everything else differently.

On a very simple level, there are people who have problems because they do drugs, there are people who do drugs because they have problems, and there are people who do drugs without problems or have problems without drugs.

Disease theory:
“The widespread belief of oversensitive liberals in the disease theory, however well-meant, undercuts and demoralizes the very people liberals wish to help.”

This makes an assumption that is questionable, that “liberals” want to help those people. Much more likely to me, anyway, is that they want to help themselves by seeming to help those people. See Thomas Sowell’s “The Vision of the Anointed” to get a better idea about that.

I’m a bit suspicious that this fuss about the iphone 6 is more theater than real, given the companies involved. Maybe the FBI is expressing concern in order to lull us to sleep.

I agree with that story about depressed millionaires. People are happiest when they are engaged in a challenge that is barely within their capabilities.

Private ninja forces: one dead ninja will stop that silliness.

Good cops: every once in a while cops act as if they are human beings. But that does not mean they are good cops. Since police work is inherently objectionable and cannot be done without coercion of innocent people, there is no such thing as a good cop.