A telling phenomenon: the absent outrage over Phillip Seymour Hoffman's criminality

[dreamnightwind]

54. Well said

I think our society is addicted to punishing. It lets some of us feel better than others of us. Pretty much everyone is totally screwed up. Some of us are more successful in this pathological society than others, which is not necessarily a recommendation for the successful ones, many of them are too self-interested to admit to any flaws of their own and use external vilification as tools to demonstrate their own superiority.

I really liked the take on addiction that came out of some academic recently making the rounds, sorry I forget his name, he was black with dreads, very articulate. Anyway he countered the oft-repeated study on rats where they would repeatedly choose stimulation over food, to the point of starvation. It turns out that if you take care of some of the rat's actual needs, such as companionship and a decent living situation with interesting things to do, the rat does not fall into an addictive relationship with the artificial stimulus.

This could be applied to people, and should be. Anytime someone's addiction rises to the level of impacting society, or of the person being largely unable to function, their full life context should be looked at, and there should be a mechanism for society to step in and give their lives some meaningful qualities. Set them up with a loving pet, help them connect to friends or possible life partners who are similarly not making it, provide some real and meaningful work opportunity and hook them up to it, if necessary even train them for it, work with them on a human level to address their own shortcomings so they can connect and make it, whatever it takes, a non-punitive approach that recognizes and values the humanity of the person in trouble and sees the cause for what it is rather than "the beatings will continue until morale improves".

edit to add: nothing in my post is meant to apply to Hoffman or his death, I hardly know who he is let alone the circumstances of his death. Like the OP, I find the larger issue more compelling than a celebrity death.