The good news, of course, is that if it DOESN'T, but instead makes you actually stop and think, then you're an open-minded person, and that's a good thing.
Right.
I want to talk about addictive behavior.
Don't worry, I really will get political towards the end, here.
But first I'm going to piss off all the "quitters," by which I mean all you AA people, all the "I quit smoking" people who still call themselves "ex" smokers instead of "non" smokers.
So let's get right to it, hey?
Addictive behavior is when you're doing something obsessively, and you don't stop even when it's damaging or destroying your life.
Like drinking too much. Or smoking too much. Or eating too much. Or voting Democrat.
...Stop. We'll get to that.
I see a lot of people that go to AA meetings. They've stopped going into bars. They've stopped drinking, more or less; this is a positive effect.
Note that I said that.
I see a lot of people who have stopped smoking; they move away when smoker light up. They've stopped smoking, more or less; this is a positive effect.
Note that I said that.
The thing they HAVEN'T done, is beaten their addiction.
See, if you are a drunk, and you stop going to places where they serve booze, because you KNOW that if you even set foot in a bar, you will be plastered and unconscious in an alleyway in the morning, you're still a drunk.
If you can't stand next to someone who's lighting up without bumming a cigarette from them, you're still a smoker.
Because you haven't faced your addiction; you've hidden from it.
Now, like I said, the effects of this are positive; you drink or smoke way less. Great!
Except that now, you're a landmine.
You could go off at any second; all it would take to throw you off the proverbial wagon is someone WHO DOESN'T KNOW YOU tossing you a cold bottle of beer at a barbecue.
"Here, buddy, have one on me!"
Now you're holding a bottle of beer. It's cold in your hands. You can see it moving in the bottle, and you remember what it tastes like, how it feels cold in your throat, how the bubbles burn a bit; and you WANT it.
And now you're a landmine; because until you beat your addiction, as long as all you're doing is hiding from it, your continued good behavior is predicated, not on your willpower, but on the continued good fortune that you have not yet had that situation happen to you.
All it would take to destroy your progress, is the seemingly innocuous friendly gesture of another person at a party, and like some kind of voodoo curse, all your effort is now gone.
Wasted.
Because you've been pointing it in the wrong direction all this time, and now, at the moment of truth, is the wrong time to be finding that out.
See, you've beaten your addiction, when you can toss that cold, tasty brew back, and say "None for me, thanks - I have a problem with hootch."
And that right there is when you're cured. Because every time - EVERY time - that you succeed, that you pass that test, it gets easier.
Now, I've focused on drinking; but this is true of any addictive behavior.
There are people addicted to World Of Warcraft. Frankly I don't understand, because I've played that game, and the only people that think it is really all that impressive are people who haven't played anything else in the genre. (or people whose only prior MMORPG experience was Asheron's Call 2.)
There are people addicted to Robert Jordan books, for the literary equivalent of the same reason that people get hooked on World Of Warcraft: until you have some basis for comparison, it's impossible to know how much this stuff sucks.
But, ok.
You have beaten your WoW addiction when someone offers to buy you a game card, and you can say "Nah, it takes too much time away from my family."
Until then? You are a walking health hazard to everyone around you.
People can be addicted to anything - but people can beat any addiction. ANYTHING. They have to want it hard enough, and they have to be willing to face, straight on, the fact that they're wrong, and they have a problem.
This is where the politics comes in, ok?
Our government is made up of addicts.
They are addicted to having things go their way; having a free hand with the cash box; having power.
Now, their addiction is destroying our country, and quite rapidly, at that.
They're not even at the AA stage yet, where they try to hide from the temptation to spend money.
They're at the stage where they have not yet realized - but are beginning to - that they have a problem.
Earlier today, when the CBO announced that the Obama budget will be "unsustainable" by the U.S. economy - something I not only COULD have told you before, but DID tell you months prior to the election - the White House Press Secretary started backpedaling almost immediately.
Sorry, folks, no unicorns or pink fairies for you.
No matter how bad our fingers are itching to write the check, we can't afford them.
They still haven't really confronted it; they're going to write a lot of checks that will bounce - and bounce HARD - before they really get brought up short.
But that's what this is; it's a shopping addiction. Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi are the equivalent of the couple that went on Dr. Phil a few years ago and told him with a straight face that despite making over $100K per year, they were in financial trouble because she HAD TO spend $17K a year on clothes.
They are spending, because spending is what they do.
Gradually, they are starting to figure out that the piggy bank isn't bottomless, and sooner or later they are going to come face to brick with the retaining wall of reality.
Someone might need some bridgework when that happens.
Because as of right now, they still aren't willing to admit that they have a problem.
And that means that WE - the country, the citizens - ALSO have a problem.
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