ADDICTION ROOTED IN FREE ENTERPRISE

Addiction is the habitual indulgence of appetite pushed to excess, placing
self above community.

In taking a hard look at the scores of drug addicts, alcohol addicts,
nicotine addicts, shopping addicts and gambling addicts, I ask would so many
be victimized if the extremes in our culture were less severe and less in
number?

The extremes of living standards between the very rich and the very poor;
the pushing of our athletes to bone-breaking violence seen in boxing,
wrestling, football and ice hockey; the state's reckless use of advertising
to breed and feed the gambling urge; the giant corporation getting even
bigger with the takeover of smaller firms; the excess of television
commercials with their pressure to buy, buy, buy; the excess of our
government spending more for weapons of mass destruction than for schools
and housing.

It's clear to me that freedom has been converted to license; that democracy
is often perverted to engage whatever excess our self-seeking requires.

It's high time we see our widespread addictions as the inevitable fall-out
of our super-individualistic free enterprise system, a system that places
power and profit over people and community.

Checked-by: Don Beck