Addiction.

          Time and time again we get government reports on addiction, drug addiction, alcohol addition, gambling addiction, but there is one addiction that the government never reports on. As a matter of fact they and their corporate buddies will do everything in their power to keep people hooked on this particular addiction, it is their life blood, it fills their coffers, they are the pushers and they grow fat on our addiction, it is the addiction to consumerism. Once again some wise words from Gregg Koep at Not Buying Anything:

 

         Most addictive drugs flood the brain with dopamine. Shopping does the same thing, but online shopping does it more, making it more addictive.
         Online shopping can stimulate as much or more dopamine production in our brains as in-store shopping. If shopping at the store is heroin, online shopping is heroin laced with fentanyl.
          In some cases digital consumerism can cause twice as much neurotransmitter as shopping bricks and mortar, making it twice as dangerous.
          Researchers are finding that attaining a reward is not the main thing that boosts the brain chemical that regulates our impulse to seek out pleasure.
          Anticipation of reward also releases a rush of feel good chemical.
         Ordering and waiting for a package builds anticipation. Anticipation causes dopamine release. Dopamine makes us feel good.
         But it is not all good.
         A dopamine rush can negatively affect our ability to control our impulses. This can be dangerous while spending money.
         The report entitled "Digital Dopamine," presented results from interviews and surveys of 1,680 shoppers from the US, UK, Brazil, and China in 2014.
From the report:
         "Seventy-six percent of people in the US, 72 percent in the UK, 73 percent in Brazil, and 82 percent in China say they are more excited when their online purchases arrive in the mail than when they buy things in store.”
         The bottom line is that online shopping is the crack cocaine of consumerism. That's the real reason they have been relentlessly pushing us toward it for decades.
         What isn't acknowledged enough is that consumerism on steroids comes with dangerous side effects for consumers, communities, and the entire planet. If we don't break free of the advertising/marketing-consumerism complex we will get stuck seeking selfish pleasures instead of helping others and developing our own creative gifts and moral character.

Only you can set yourself free.
Once you know more,
you'll say,
"No more!"

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info      

The Addict As Scapegoat.

      As the Greek state continues to follow the dictate of the corporate/financial Mafia in its drive to create sweatshop Europe, the health of the people continues to spiral downwards. Addiction has mushroomed and the facilities to treat addiction have seen the budgets all but disappear. In the cities of Greece addicts are herded and exposed to humiliation, the addict is another scapegoat to be blamed for society's ills.

      This is an excerpt from an interesting article, in X-pressed, by Lena Theodoropoulou, on addiction in Greece:

      On the 6th and 7th of March 2013, the Greek police, in cooperation with the Centre of Control and Disease Prevention (ΚΕΕΛΠΝΟ), detained 132 drug addicts and forcibly transferred them from the centre of Athens to the Immigration detention centre of Amygdaleza. There, following the orders of the National Centre for Health Operations (ΕΚΕΠΥ), the doctors forced the addicts to undergo medical examination, in order to publish statistics on the spread of the HIV virus in these populations. According to the government, the drug addicts were taken care of and the doctors offered them sandwiches and juices (!) before letting them go. It still remains unknown how these people went from Amygdaleza back to the city centre, from where they had been violently removed. The operation was named “Thetis” and, according to the police statement, “these operations will continue in order to tackle the drug problem and improve the city centre”. Consequently, it looks like the police, besides its original oppressive role, have now assumed a new ‘sanitary’ task: the regulation of public health.
        The reaction of rehabilitation centres and other anti-drug organisations was immediate, denoting the obvious illegality of such an operation as the groundless arrest and mandatory registration of personal and medical data of addicts; an absolute violation of basic human rights, going against international agreements, the Constitution and the laws. While the state is working on statistics,

It is well worth reading the full article HERE:

ann arky's home.