October 30 2018

Vancouver DTES Critic

Watching in the news about doctors wanting to "de-criminalize" hard drugs (as if most drugs aren't really legal anyway), and then dealing with those several close people in my life who struggle with addiction, I just can't help but shake my head. As someone who attempts co-exist with several close people in my life who suffer with addictions, whether that's addictions to drugs and pharmaceuticals, alcohol, tech devices, or trying to develop meaningful relationships with those who have been sexually abused as children, as any psychologist (or Al-Anon member) will tell you, being subject to these dysfunctional ways is just as damaging to the person trying to help than it is to the person who is experiencing the addictive problems in the first place.

 

So when I see this idea flogged in the media about "legalizing" drugs to solve the problem of drug addiction, I just think, "Really?". I have spent pretty much all of my adult life, fighting a system that destroyed my family before I was even born, which tore apart the community I grew up in. This fight to preserve the last remnants of a childhood and community so much so that I made huge sacrifices early in my young adult life, putting aside my own agenda as a young adult to put others needs first in my own family and community where I grew up as a child. It has been this theme of sacrifice, of putting my needs, wants and desires second to those I am closest to, that has dominated my overall lot, now approaching mid-life. So again, listening to doctors go on and on recently about how giving more drugs, substances, tech devices, material things to those who have deep seated socio-psychological problems, as if this is the answer, again I just think, "What is wrong with people."

 

Now, I try to see things from many perspectives, I have tried relentlessly to become less "privileged" and to see things not through the eyes of a suburban white chick, but to really try and blend in to my various surroundings (of which there are many), understanding what other minorities go through, who may be much more oppressed than I am as a woman (an oppressed sector of society already), and have been dealt much shittier cards in life. Like I have written in a previous blog, I did that this last autumn for several months, by moving into the worst part of town on Vancouver's Downtown East Side. I wanted to spend longer in this area specifically, but alas the circumstances became overwhelmingly challenging, and in mid-life knowing the sacrifices I have made as a young adult, and into my 30s, I understand my limitations quite well now as a grown adult. I had to move out of the area, but what I learned by being in it, it is this the myriads of "data" that I am still "processing", months later to somehow come to terms with elusive solutions to these problems.

 

My observations about my experiences living in the downtown east side of Vancouver, present day, are again every reason why doctors, ceos, politicians, people who have the power, should try putting the shoe on the other foot and follow suit. The people making decisions should put themselves in it to really get an idea of what these elusive solutions look like from the inside out, rather than speculating from a blind, biased, privileged view point. What I not only observed, but experienced, was not only challenging, but enlightening as well.

I saw a Ted Talk a couple of years ago, and anyone who has tried to shift their view from drugs being "bad" to it being a sociological issue instead, will remember this talk about the experience of mice either living in isolation, or with a community of other mice. That the mice living in isolation had a much higher chance of developing addictions to substances, than the mice who lived in communities with other mice. Thus providing the platform of thought to develop this sense of community for those humans who suffer the same fate of the isolated mice in this experiment. What I observed being "in it" in the worst part of town, present day, was this sort of community that actually exists on the streets already. It is this street community of people who know and recognize each other, who develop bonds (however fragile or strong) with each other for emotional survival, that will always exist and that will always develop in the worst, most devastating living conditions. But what makes us humans different than the isolated mice is that in these street communities that already exist, us humans are still addicted, unlike the communities of mice.

 

That said, I believe whole-heartedly that housing and food should be a human right, that to have safe shelter and food for basic survival needs, for those who are the most down-trodden and destitute, in this day and age, with the resources acquired and "developed" in our present day society, people should know they have access to food and safe shelter. This is the first step to battling the over-whelming problems our modern society has with addiction. So any government or corporation not focused on providing policies for food and safe shelter, for those who are the worst off in today's world, has just got it all wrong, and it's those organizations that have a special sort of karma to work through. But that isn't the whole answer. Basic food and safe shelter for the worst off in today's world doesn't solve the myriad of other issues that come from being in the most devastating of circumstances. This is where it gets tricky and a solution to modern day problems become much more elusive.

 

It is the idea to try to somehow re-create what the isolated versus the non-isolated mice go through, to somehow solve the problem. Starting from childhood, children who are raped go through a psychological isolation early on in life, this feeling bleeds well into adult-hood and old age, the feeling of psychological isolation is very real and very present for a lot of people who were raped of basic healthy childhood development growing up. We see this conversation beginning to be talked about more openly in the media present day.  But even if someone has had a relatively unobstructed childhood, I look at other ways isolation creeps into our daily lives, and much earlier in life than ever before. The world of "technology" and technological devices has enslaved and isolated most of us. This form of addiction is relatively new, and so far the world hasn't seen the *real* repercussions of serious tech addictions. How serious tech addictions will manifest, not unlike the mass devastation of the opioid crisis, will be incredibly horrible, terrifying and devastating. Like the opioid crisis, that was created by doctors and "legal" drug pharmaceutical companies, we are already starting to see how "legal" tech addictions in young people are effecting their development as they grow into adulthood, the repercussions of tech addictions on political outcomes, and the way society is structured. It's just not a healthy way to live or be in the world.

 

If it is isolation that causes addictive behaviors, then it is the idea of isolation that really needs to be examined. "Divide and conquer" is an age old strategy used to dominate the less fortunate, therefore isolating people in itself is the strategy used to control. So what is the strategy for growth and a natural progression towards homeostasis with the planet we live on to further exploration into the unknown? More drugs? No, the idea of giving more drugs to drug addicts is the wrong answer, altogether. It serves no one, including those in "control" with their special karma. They will die too. The ongoing theme in my last several blogs, the idea that death is what we are programmed to believe is wrong, is an idea that I'm sure I will revisit as I continue to publish profound ideas, that are essentially meaningless (haha, yes, try and figure that one out). What's right and wrong isn't the difference between life and death. The real question is how much we want to prolong the death process, and, what does it mean to live?

 

When we are more isolated in society than ever before, and more easily manipulated and controlled as a result, it is a sense of real community, in real life, not online, that will theoretically pull us through, so that we are not faced with death at every turn, in our isolation. Trying to somehow control how a community will manifest, or trying to somehow "create" a sense of community, other than what is so fundamental to human consciousness, again a ridiculous idea. Community to counter and ever-more controlled isolated mind-set will happen how it will naturally evolve to happen or it won't. Just like what I witnessed and became a part of on the DTES, this naturally occurring community happened on its own, no doctor, nor politician, nor priest, nor ceo made those friendships and community happen. It happened because having a sense of real community is so fundamental to the human experience, it's like breathing. I hadn't spent that little time on my smartphone, since smart phones began, being a part of it. I witnessed a certain unbreakable cohesion that is really unparalleled, in that ongoing communal fight for survival in the worst part of town. It is this immeasurable human tendency to "group-up" to be dependent on each other that really ensured forward momentum for the individual. Giving more drugs to those who have developed and who will continue to develop that sense of community, will solve nothing. More meddling into natural occurring phenomena, like the human inclination to be drawn to an actual sense of real community, will just make things that much worse. We will all be subject to the repercussions of a *naturally* evolving sense of community, or the alternative will continue to manifest, the devastating effects of this failed human experiment.