Opium and Art

If you have seen the modern 'art' of addiction, it is pretty lame.  I think those of us from years past remember when marijuana 'bongs' became an art craze, with psychedelic colors and patterns.  But, nowadays, most drugs are dispensed through crude pipes, dirty spoons, and medical-rubbish needles.

In the past, such was not the case: 

How Collecting Opium Antiques Turned Me Into an Opium Addict

Aside form the author's own story, I think it is interesting how opium usage developed into an aesthetic activity.  In the last year or so, I've taken an interest in gongfu-cha, or the Chinese tea-preparation method (a nice family activity that focuses and calms us after a stressful day).  It is also an aesthetic experience, though without the problems associated with opiates!

My question, however, us always the same: why?  Why not just smoke your drug in a piece of glass pipe or a broken car antenna?  Why the effort?

My theory is that the Chinese understood at a more basic level that we are prepared to acknowledge that the experience of opium was an attempt to reach places reserved for the Divine.  It was a type of religious experience, one that brought peace and comfort to those who lived in a world of struggle and oppression.

Opium kept the people docile.  Excited minds that could not express themselves found rest in the dark rooms of the opium den.  Karl Marx understood this in some way when he wrote:

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

Of course, he is guilty or reverse engineering gone wrong.  Religion can be a 'drug,' but that is not the real goal.  The real goal is spirituality, which is always transformative.  It changes us rather than masking the symptoms.  However, if people merely settle for the rituals and refuse to go deeper, then religion is a drug indeed.

Opium usage was a 'religious' ceremony for its users because it offered a cheap way to an experience that could be mistaken for a spiritual 'awakening.'  The art of opium use met that goal and enhanced it.

Our modern drugs are far more powerful and mind-altering, so much so that their 'art' is no longer necessary.  The enhancing effect of the imagination is really irrelevant the way it was with the older versions of drugs: marijuana is more powerful now than in the 1960s, when the 'art' of the modern drug culture flourished.  The art enhanced the high.

Now, the art is unnecessary.  Now, all you need is a tin can and a lighter to smoke your 'religion' of choice.

Drug art is a 'religious' expression, no doubt about it.  If you talk to a drug-art aficionado, it is not much different than talking to someone enthusiastic about their religion.  They want you to try it, or at least appreciate it.  I've actually had the same pressure exerted on me to try pot as I had to 'accept Jesus.'

In the case of the former, I discovered I had an allergy.  In the case of the latter, it was my own exploration without being pressured that caused me to convert.

All religion must be judged by its transformative effects.  In the case of the pot smoker, he must look at what his usage makes him and if he is happy with the results.  The same should be the measure of the religious person.

The problem arises when people do not want to clearly and honestly see themselves.  The druggie does not want to see the ruined relationships and blown opportunities, nor does the religious fanatic.

All the aesthetic beauty of drug art cannot hide the fact that it ultimately destroys the user.  It is the Siren Song of Hell.

Food Addict Asks For Fellowship

As of yet, this website really doesn't have any 'lists' or a membership database of Orthodox Christians struggling with addiction.  Some have asked, but right now it does not seem like something that people are really beating the doors down for.

However, I do occasionally get a request.  Here's one:

If you can please put out an appeal on my behalf (without mentioning my name or e-mail address) to any Orthodox believer who is in Food Addicts in Recovery Anonymous (or who would like more information about this 12 step program), please refer them to me. I can then get in touch with them. I would really appreciate that.

This person is looking for fellowship with fellow food addicts.  If you would like to be of service, please contact me and I will put you in contact.

Addiction is a lonely road in the beginning, but so is spirituality.  There's a lot of hard work and struggle with little in the way of past success to generate enthusiasm.  It is important to reach out, and be reachable, to defeat the despair of isolation and loneliness.

If you are able, please consider this request.  My email address is on the right hand side menu in a brown box.  Yes, you will have to type it in: it is not a button, because I'm trying to cut back on the spam.

Natural Sexuality vs. WEIRD Sexuality

As you can imagine, this site gets a big uptick in traffic once the topic of sexual addictions comes up.  It is a growing problem, with lots of facts and experience but little real accounting for why it is a problem.

Then, there are the endless arguments about 'nature versus nurture' when it comes to sexual attractions.  So, when an article comes up that challenges most of the prevalent theories, it gets my attention.

Where Masturbation and Homosexuality Do Not Exist

Here's a quote from the article:

The absence of masturbation among Aka and Ngandu men and women may be more surprising, and perhaps also harder to explain. Recall that the Hewletts did not find that masturbation is "frowned upon or punished," but rather that there is just no general conception of it. This finding recalls a much-discussed 2010 Behavioral and Brain Sciences paper called "The WEIRDest people in the world?" in which the authors argued that far too many sweeping claims about "human nature" are drawn exclusively from samples of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies.

Yes, most of our conclusions about 'human nature' are derived not only from a very narrow sampling of humanity, but also sciences that are devoted to their own political motives.  Yes, universities are political entities who have to appease politicians in order to get their research grants and political wonks to get their praises which attract better students (thus colleges are the ultimate WEIRDo factories).  You go against the flow, and you will be punished.

Just look at the global warming debate.  If you agree or disagree, the one thing that is certain these days: the other guy will resort to all kinds of insults if you don't toe the line that he has drawn.

Same thing with sexuality: if you start questioning whether the present phenomenon of homosexuality is natural or normal, you are going to see people get pretty aggressive in their 'counter-attacks.'  To question the 'party line' is considered the highest form of 'heresy' even among those who call themselves 'open' and 'tolerant.'

The Aga and Ngandu peoples are not weird, they are just being themselves and are very happy.  We are the Weirdos (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) who are miserable.  They are not creating new ways to be dissatisfied, but are content with what they have.  No Prozac, no political parties, no commercials, no psychologists.  Suicide?  Are you kidding?  Hey, let's check their ADHD rates!  Oh, yeah, they don't know what that is, but they don't have it either.

What's wrong with us?

Look at them and see why they are happy.  When the anthropologists picked up on it right away: their view of sex is part of their survival.  Sex has meaning.

In our world, sex is both a recreation and a liability.  We don't need sex because we don't need children.  Well, we need someone else's children but not our own.  Marriage is now mostly about sex rather than survival... it's primary purpose is to prevent further dating and cheating rather than providing a necessary component of life.  

Sex is not just supposed to be about arousal, yet this is what we Weirdos have made it, and that';s why it isn't working for us.

We have now pushed homosexuality out beyond where it has been in any other culture: even societies that condone homosexual practices (Greeks, Roman, Saudi Arabs, Turks, Afghans, etc.) never let it interfere with marriage.  But, we don't need marriage anymore, and so we have destroyed the basic fabric of sexuality: sexuality and marriage are part of the same human desire to be desired and desire, to be accepted and to accept.

Weirdos have also crushed the notion of distinction between genders, and so now we are left with no purpose to our sexuality.  In these tribal lands, males and females need each other as males and females in order to 'find the baby' as they put it.  But, since we have made conception practically a disease, no one needs us in the sexual sense for reproduction.  You can go to a doctor to get pregnant, just as you can go to the doctors to get rid of a baby.  Aga and Ngandu peoples would be horrified at the idea of abortion, yet we are very comfortable with killing the baby they really want.

Homosexuality isn't about attraction, but about rejection.  It is the perception of being rejected by the world, and the rejection of one's own natural role. The Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic society has taught us that our importance as male and female is non-existence, all in the name of some weird version of equality, but all it has done is made us feel equally unimportant and unnecessary.

We don't need to accept our gender role.  Gender is now a biological 'accident' rather an important social role and valuable in and of itself.  Some people may have greater difficulty accepting their gender, but rather than encouraging them as a society that values and needs them to fulfill their roles as male and females, we are busy talking people into remaining maladjusted.

Does this mean that all homosexuals can be 'cured'?  In this society, I'd say no because we are so far off the path of nature.  However, I would say that there would be far fewer than the 3% or so that presently identify as homosexual in the WEIRD-world if our society was more 'natural'.  I also think that those who were really tempted in this area would be much happier, because they could still fulfill the social obligation and thus receive some sense of value.

Right now, a homosexual and a heterosexual both have equal 'valuelessness.'  Both are unnecessary to the survival of culture as presently defined.   Humans are just big bags of  'needs' and 'liabilities' rather than contributors.  Sexuality is now just about getting a need 'met' rather than something more profound the way it is with the Aga and Ngandu tribes.

My only fear is that there is a lot more suffering ahead before we discover, as a society, that we are headed for utter implosion under the banner of this fad of sexual nihilism.

Gambling Video

While looking for videos on Bath Salts, I stumbled across this curious Australian video having to do with the temptation of gambling and the addiction to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNWz8rcQtSI

Yes, the speaker is a bit odd, but I'd say I've got him beat in that department.  I think it is part of a longer series which I have not seen.

My sense is that much of what he's talking about there are things I've posted on here, including the problem of expectations and the escapism that addiction offers a suffering psyche.  

What he does not state outright is the problem of Pride.  The gambler who thinks he can 'beat the system' is operating off of a Pride narrative that is not only the root of his addiction but patently false.  I would disagree with the speaker and say that there is a system, and it works very well.  Just look at a casino.  They didn't get all the fancy furnishing for free.  The system is designed for you to lose more than win, and that's why they are in business and most people go home broke.

Pride says that the rules don't apply to you and me.  There's your problem.

How do you fix it?  By killing the fears underneath that make Pride a 'necessary evil.'  Until we get to the fears and turn them over to God, we are going to continue to experience anxiety in the face of our necessary suffering and pain, and run the other way down into numbness. 

Videos: Bath Salts Problem in USA

The synthetic drug epidemic is moving through both rural American and Russia, though in very different forms.  Whereas Russia is struggling with Heroin and Krokodil, America is fighting a battle with methamphetamine and Bath Salts.  It is getting worse and worse:

Drug Crazed - USA

Bath Salts Awareness

Bath Salt High

CNN: Effects of Bath Salts - Interview

The destruction of families and alienation from spirituality is leaving America open to these horrible drugs, yet we keep talking about arresting people and passing more laws when we are doing nothing about the root causes.  We need to start having an honest conversation: the 'social progress' since World War 2 has been in the wrong direction.

In my next post, we'll go over the statistics.  Our culture is coming apart as we delve into the insatiable world of self-indulgence.

This is what it is all about, folks.  When we tell people that they have no control over their attractions and appetites, and should give into them, then we set ourselves up for failure.  From a young age, we beat into our children's heads that 'freedom' is doing what you desire in the moment.  So, we have raised several generations of low-impulse-control people.

We tend to classify these impulses in two ways: those that cause physical harm, and those that cause emotional harm.

More often than not, the low-impulse-control man with a violent streak gets jail.  We are good at punishing these crimes.

But, what about the overly-emotional person, who can't control their constant outrage, indignation, and offence?  They are constantly complaining about those around them and demanding the compliance of others?  Here in the US, we've created a generation of people who have whole lists of forbidden words or things that 'offend' them so much that we have established huge bureaucracies just to deal with all the tears of the emotionally sensitive, who make life miserable for everyone else.

These people stress out everyone around them, and contribute to the problem of addiction as a cultural phenomenon as everyone wanders through life perpetually needy.  Yes, many people need to either punch us or verbally abuse us, and all of it hurts.  Those of us that struggle to maintain self-control are constantly being baited and tempted.

Sometimes we fall.  Either we lash out, or we 'numb out.'

Our society's high stress levels are pushing people into addiction.  In some ways, I think it is less about luring people into addiction as much as shoving them in.

Video: Church and Alcoholics

I ran across this video discussing the alcoholism problem in Russia.  If you fast-forward to 5:15, you can see what a small church-based treatment center looks like:

Drinking Away the Pain - Russia

A change since this video was produced- beer has been declared 'alcohol' in Russia since the beginning of this year:

Beer now considered alcohol, not food, in Russia as new restrictions take hold

From what I hear, however, the situation really has not improved.  

Much of what the video focuses on is the symptoms, but not really the underlying problem in Russia.  What is it?

Well, if you ask me, the problem is complex.  First, there is the obvious problem of the weather.  Just about every place where people are locked up half the year indoors with little to do, you see drinking problems.  Sweden and Norway don't have the grinding poverty of rural Russia, yet their alcoholism problems are significant.

Second, and more profoundly, the dialectical materialism of modern Russian culture is a major factor.  They have gone from Communism and its focus on wealth, to Consumerism and its equal obsession with wealth.  The poor feel 'less than' because in both systems they are the 'less thans.'  This leads to despair and drinking.

Third, the collapse of the Soviet Union brought down a political system that defined 'human character.'  A great deal of Soviet indoctrination was designed to provide people with 'role models.'  You were told what a good person is, and how to emulate his behavior.  Now, this is gone.  While the Church is now able to actively preach, only 1 in 10 Russians is an active participant in the life of the Church.  The others may know about the Church, but it has little personal significance to them.  Therefore, it does not necessarily effect social consciousness and the definition of character as it should.

Fourth, life must have meaning, and it is very obvious that Russians are struggling to find a meaning to life beyond mere survival.  Without meaning, life is a burden, and drinking is an obvious escape from nihilism... with more nihilism.

Fifth, Russian society would do well to reconsider the 'hierarchy or relationships' I discussed in my previous posts and start working towards restoring the ruptured relationships that have come to characterize modern life.  This will cure much of the fear and loneliness of modern existence.

Fr. Dmitri Dudko & Alcoholism / Отец Дмитрий Дудко и алкоголизма

Recently, the name of Fr. Dmitri Dudko has surfaced, and I am trying to find out more about him.  Apparently, he wrote a number of sermons against alcoholism, which I would be interested in finding translations of if they exist or can be translated.

Here is his obituary.

He is not without some controversy: after being arrested a second time for preaching, he broke during interrogation and recanted his anti-Soviet positions.  He was largely discredited as a result.  Some years later after the Fall of Communism, he publicly repented:

An Appeal for Mercy

I've ordered his only book in English, Our Hope, which was published before his arrest in 1980.

If any of you have information on his anti-alcoholism sermons, I would be very appreciative if you would contact me.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

В последнее время имя отец Дмитрий Дудко всплыли, и я стараюсь, чтобы узнать больше о нем. Видимо, он написал ряд поучений против алкоголизма, который я был бы заинтересован в поиске переводов, если они существуют, или могут быть переведены.

Вот его некролог.

Он не без противоречий: после ареста во второй раз для проповеди, он сломал во время допроса и отказался от своих антисоветских позиций. Он был в значительной степени дискредитирован в результате. Несколько лет спустя после падения коммунизма, он публично покаялся:

Призыв к милосердию

Я заказал его единственная книга на английском, Наша Надежда, которая была опубликована до своего ареста в 1980 году.

Если кто-то из вас есть информация о его анти-алкоголизм проповеди, я был бы очень признательны, если бы вы связаться со мной.

Пожалуйста, простите любые ошибки в данном переводе Гугл!