- "That person is lazy, that's why they're homeless. Being homeless is a choice"
- "Everyone has equal opportunity to make money as long as you work hard"
To begin to break down the connection I'm going to try and establish to you, we must first understand that influences play a unique roll in our social lives. Unfortunately, we have forgotten that influence stems further than most people believe. The importance that influence has on our psychological development is unprecedented, and this must be realized and applied to social environment study in order to really understand the state of our social well-being.
Keep in mind this is a complex and multi-faceted psychological concept, and fully explaining it is impossible within the confines of a blog post. But here it goes:
In accordance with the first irritating comment listed above: Our ability to respond to influence begins as soon as we have an environment. For example, a mother who drinks during pregnancy will often cause the baby to develop Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. This view is widely accepted and justly so by the vast majority of health professionals. It makes sense, as the environment of the baby is affected by a type of chemical invader, a reaction to that invader is imminent. The same is true with stress. Developmental biology in the past few years has been continually dismantling the assumption that genetics are the root cause of complex conditions such as stress and mood disorders. Dr. Robert Sapolsky, Professor of Neurological Sciences at Stanford University, has stated that "it is virtually impossible to understand how biology works outside the context of environment". What he means by this is that our psychological development, a prime example of biological function, is subject to environment above all else. This notion already places common assumptions of homelessness on a path of falsity.
Dr. Gabor Mate, a preventative care specialist who works with the hardcore addicts of East side Vancouver, has also released several resources indicating that homelessness is not genetically determined or born out of laziness, but the result of severe mental and/or physical abuse stemming from childhood. This also apparently is why drug use is prevalent among people who are so stressed or emotionally scarred, because the drugs properties are what the user has been seeking. It is a sort of safe haven, an escape from a painful reality.
And even with will-power, escape from addiction is not as simple as much of the public unfortunately believes. In fact, the American Society of Addiction Medicine released a new definition of addiction, whereby addiction is treated as a "chronic brain disorder" rather than a "behavioural problem involving too much alcohol, drugs, gambling or sex".
You will find no peer-reviewed scientific study that indicates laziness or behavioural issues as causative in any kind of addiction. Rather, behaviour is either learned through environment or the result of mental deficiencies in the social environment.
A way that I was explained addiction which is easy to understand:
The great British child psychiatrist (as cited by Dr. Gabor Mate) said that fundamentally two things can go wrong during childhood:
1. When things happen that shouldn't happen. This includes things such as trauma, abandonment, abuse etc.
2. When things that should happen, do not. This refers to the absence of positive developmental stimulus such as an emotionally available parent. This is also known as proximal abandonment.
Addiction is so much deeper than laziness, it's causes being systemic. We have done ourselves no favours by neglecting the importance of influence on our development as human beings. We forget that human societies have not always been violent, with early egalitarian societies actually having little to no violence due to the strong social cohesion and mutual understanding between them.
Our environment is us, and we are the environment. We create it, we perpetuate it. It is up to us whether we accept environment as a cause of social disconnection, and in doing so decide to recognize and constructively reverse the prevalence of negative social environments. It is then and only then that we might come close to closing the gap on addiction or general social inequality.
To address the second irritating comment: Equal opportunity is the most dumbfounded, inconsiderate, and untrue assumptions in society today. We are not all equal. Inequality is a rampant problem of society and in many complex facets of social functionality. These statistics speak for themselves:
- Canadian aboriginal people are twice as likely to be unemployed than non-aboriginal people.
- The 2008 global recession hit minorities by far the hardest. Blacks and Hispanics lost an average of over 50% of household wealth between 2005-2009, whereas whites lost an average of 16%.
- Toronto unemployment rates are up to six times higher for certain minority groups.
- The global recession wiped out the income gains of the 99%, while the 1% had only half of their gains erased.
And if we are to do comparisons on the basis of developed countries vs developing countries, the comparisons in inequality become exponentially more pronounced and perverse. This world is absolutely riddled with inequality; coast to coast, border to border and nation after nation.
When we consider that human development is in fact a question of environment, is it not safe to say our economic and social inequality is the biggest factor in some of our biggest societal problems? People often forget that inequality has not always been such a huge problem, as middle class wage rises used to match inflation rises until about 1980. It is our government policy that determines inequality. For example, these types of policies hugely affect inequality rates:
- Tax rates, in all forms (income tax, corporate tax, etc)
- Tax cuts
- Social security
- Health care, either the quality of it or the availability of it.
- Interest rates
- Incarceration rates
- Affordable housing
As you see, all of these policies carry with them the ability to be changed. It is up to us to demand change, and in the process evaluate the ways in which to best allocate money so that a positive social change can take shape sustainably. We must not listen to the elite about which ways to properly allocate money; this is exactly what we shouldn't have done for the last thirty years but did. The ruling class have effectively gutted populations, forcing debt upon them until they cannot afford to consume more than what they need. With an economy whose life-blood is consumption, the premise of austerity is weak in theory and in practice. Cutting deficits most often means cutting jobs and cutting social services, both in Government and in the private sector
This is the reason why Bank of America cut 30,000 jobs recently.
This is the reason why MF Global cut 1,000 jobs shortly after it declared bankruptcy.
This is the reason why Europe is consumed by social unrest; as a result of broad-based austerity cuts in social services.
This is the reason why even cops are willing to stand up with Occupy protesters...
We have for too long believed that addiction and inequality is a cause of defective personality, rather than accept the truth: Addiction and joblessness is systemic, not genetically or behaviourally determined. The only way to talk about human nature concretely is to also recognize that we as humans have certain human needs. We are born with good traits when those needs are met, and born with a different and likely negative traits if those needs are not met. One only has to analyse the poor state of economic function in correlation with social condition to recognize that behaviour is socialized; subject to environmental influence.
We have been pointing our fingers at the wrong source, and raising our voices to the wrong people. Poverty is a by-product of the system, a result of poor economic planning which never seems to be in accordance with social worth as a measure of efficacy. It does nothing to dismiss poverty as unchangeable, because that view is scientifically invalid. We can change it, but only if we try; which we haven't done, as far as I can remember. At least not effectively. So let's talk about it, address ways in which people can feel socialized, and feel like there is a tomorrow. By closing the door on the future, we have been oppressing progressiveness and justifying it all at the same time. We can do better.
"Poverty is the worst form of violence" - Mohandas Ghandi
Written by: Shelby Bouchard
Follow me on Twitter: @SBtheradical
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