With this post, this blog will officially complete its evolution from a tool promoting my art into a bucket in which ideas fall from my brain. Well, I suppose that words are just another way to express ideas and can therefor be called "art" just as legitimately as pretty pictures. Also, I invoke "Duchamp"- the secret password that immediately makes anything art.
So anyway - distinctions. They are important. In fact, contrary to what the sound-bite generators on the television and internet tubes would lead you to believe, fine distinctions are often at the heart of a debate.
Case in point: when people talk about addiction on television, they never make the distinction between chemical addiction and behavioral addiction. Heroin and cocaine, for instance, are chemically addictive because they cause a person's body to become dependent on them. This happens because the body tries to counteract the effects of the drug by altering itself. When more and more of the drug is used, the body's response becomes bigger and bigger. This is why drug addicts can take amounts of drugs that would kill a non-addict. It is also what causes withdrawal - the body has become so out of whack that it begins to need the drug just to return to equilibrium.
Then there's behavioral addiction (which is my term- people don't talk about behavioral addiction, so it doesn't have an official name as far as I know). Anything that feels good can be behaviorally addictive - jogging, eating, playing videogames, watching pornography, etc. This is why we are constantly bombarded by news stories about a 'new addiction.' But it's all basically the same thing- our bodies are set up to reward us for doing things that help us to survive. It does this by releasing the chemical serotonin, which is absorbed by the brain and interpreted by our conscious mind as "happiness." So, when you do physical activity or eat or anything else that helps you survive, your body encourages you to do it again with serotonin. The problem is, in modern society, we have mastered the environment and don't have to work to survive anymore. We are free to do whatever feels good. So instead of eating to survive, we eat because it makes us feel good. And then we get fat while watching news stories about "food addiction."
Behavioral addiction can cause withdrawal too, but on a much smaller scale - similar to the headaches one might feel if they quit coffee cold turkey. Behavioral addiction is, well, more tied to behavior - why not play one more game? eat one more chip? update your Facebook status one more time? In a world that can feel very far removed from purpose and meaning, why not continue an activity that is guaranteed to produce happiness, if only momentarily?
Still, behavioral addictions can be very serious. A man in South Korea had a heart attack and died after playing a videogame for days on end without sleep, food, or drink. Internet and porn addicts often withdraw from offline society, ruining real-world relationships. But anytime a story about these addictions arises, people scoff because they only think of addiction in terms of chemical addiction. "C'mon," they might say, "it's not like they're hooked on crack."
That's why distinctions are so important- because without them, people on opposite sides wind up arguing on two entirely separate, unrelated topics. Anyone who talks about behavioral addiction winds up spending their time explaining how something less toxic than crack can still be dangerous, which is both boring and blindingly obvious. But by this point, the talking heads will have already segued to commercial.
And this happens again and again in public discourse. Politics is the most blatant example: take any "debate" segment on a television show. The shiny and clueless anchor will ask a question, at which point the Democrat will read his unrelated talking point, then wait patiently for the Republican to counter with his unrelated memorized speech. At some point, the words "transparency" and "freedom" will be thrown in, completely out of context. The reporter will fail to ask any follow-up questions, such as "Why did your response have nothing to do with the question I asked you?" and he will thank them for being on the show.
This process will continue for the next 23 hours, or until a volcano blows up, a plane crashes, or a white girl goes missing while on vacation.
