This is the first in a three-part series on the contextual influences modern society has on mood disorders and addictions.2) the purchase risks, and 3) the possibility of soul renewal through (but not limited to) the therapeutic use of cannabis.
Part I: The Addictive System
“We live in a society full of data but hungry for wisdom. We are connected 24/7, but anxiety, fear, depression and loneliness are at an all time high. We must correct the course”. ~Elizabeth Kapu’uwailani Lindsey
The “addictive system” (1) is the elephant in the living room. Mood disorders and addictions, like everything else, don’t happen in a vacuum. However, we tend to miss the general social “space” when we only focus on individual problems, such as depression and anxiety or addictions to opioids and social media.
What exactly is this context?
It is an invisible psychological environment, the backdrop against which people inadvertently succumb to addiction or suffer from mood disorders. The rise in antidepressant prescriptions and the number of suicides outline the growing dark side of modern society.
It is a complex and interconnected network of public (government) and private corporations, aligned with the media in marketing and advertising information, products and services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: a surround sound cacophony of targeted messages designed to shape public opinion and an increasingly strong consumer mindset.
Some call it propaganda.
Intangible psychological concepts apply to marketing and sales, concepts that supposedly ride all humans: the perceived need for: social status, security, winning, the right image, having the best, looking good, gaining an advantage, keeping up with your neighbor, excellence, being first, etc. Advertising messages then weave in the promise of helping the ‘consumer’ achieve one or another of these intangible goals when they purchase your information, product and/or service. The ubiquity of these messages in modern society has become normalized and even welcomed.
How did we get here?
Edward Bernays, in the early to mid-20th century, is probably the person who set the standard for public relations and advertising in the US. He was the nephew of the well-known psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, and like his uncle before him, Bernays believed on the predictability of the human unconscious when it came to the human and psychological motivations for self-preservation, safety, aggression, and sex.
He transferred what he learned from his uncle to help launch his career in public relations and was extremely successful. Due to his efforts on behalf of the pork industry in 1915, bacon became a traditional breakfast mainstay. In the 1920s, he made smoking fashionable among women by calling cigarettes “torches of freedom” to advance the tobacco industry, and established fluoride as indispensable for dentistry in the 1930s (a waste product of aluminum ) for his client, Alcoa Aluminum. (two)
Watch this video that says it all: Get Inspired
Stay tuned for Part II: Buy the addictive system at your own risk
- Anne Wilson-Schaef. When society becomes addicted. Harper and Row, Publishers Inc. 1987
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_relations_campaigns_of_Edward_Bernays
