It's not my fault I'm an addict

Patrick Cummins
An Alternate Aspect

There are, of course, always exceptions and on reading the following you will know if that is the case. But beware fooling yourself that it does not apply to you. The only result of a false diagnosis will be that you suffer even more.
Krista Campbell in her recent column, Witticisms and Criticisms, bemoaned the lack of effort required in today's world – the pampering and the ease with which everything is accomplished while removing any challenge. To this I would add the parallel growth of the “it's not my fault” culture.
So if you have the body mass index of a flatulent hippopotamus you whine: “It's not my fault I'm fat, it's genetic, or: “It's not my fault I take drugs, I'm an addict and can't help it” or: “It's not my fault I'm unemployed, nobody wants me.”
The provincial government is, of course, only too pleased to play along and even encourage this attitude. You can become fodder for their coterie of “Social Workers”, a.k.a. I went to university on government grants and wasted three years getting a worthless or unusable arts degree, couldn't get a job in the real world so swelled the ranks of the demonstrably inept and incompetent provincial civil service to counsel people like you.
This generates the perfect symbiosis, the employed but incompetent fool counselling the troubled and probably unemployed fool.
“No! Being overweight is not your fault it is because of your upbringing/genes/circumstances/anything but the truth, let's work on a plan to help you which we know will not work but will keep me employed and you on welfare or unemployment.”
If you need help at self-identification and are asking: “Can this possibly be me?” You probably drink Budweiser or Coors light, actually like Tim Hortons coffee and exist for six days a week on Kraft dinner with a culinary treat of fried fish fingers or 'burger on the seventh day.
Here’s a simple example of our leaders' folly. The provincial government knows it is encouraging prescription drug abuse and by extension the addiction to illegal drugs by its action, or lack thereof, in the issuing and control of prescriptions. A quick start to control these would be to charge the doctor (say $50) for every prescription form, suitably copy protected, and not refund the monies until the original form was redeemed. But the approach is to not even attempt to control these deadly missives because the medical profession refuses to co-operate. So, again, the province abdicates its responsibility. Then, to make matters worse, the government proposes methadone clinics which, if anything, do nothing but replace a manageable but illegal addiction with an unmanageable legal addiction.
One could detail many other forms of government facilitation of short sighted, inept behaviour, suffice to say their own conduct serves as the model they choose to operate by.
By any standard of logic, the caring “you poor lost soul” approach should be replaced with a swift kick up the backside and the admonition to “get a life.” The only reason you are grossly fat, sorry, overweight, is because you determine that will be the case: YOU eat too much. You are an addict because YOU and only you take drugs. You are an alcoholic because YOU drink too much, period! But of course, in this day and age, logic is long departed and only fools are left to counsel us.
Failure to take control, to take action may result in a wasted life, welfare, unemployment, living in flophouses or on the street. A bleak, blank existence, spirit unfulfilled and probably an early agonizing death. Agonizing because you will realize, as you depart, that you could have done so much better and the only reason you failed is YOU.
You are the only one who can better your lot. Do it. NOW!

Patrick Cummins appears every second Friday. He WANTS to hear your comments and criticisms. E-mail him at brook99a@myrealbox.com or comment online at saintcroixcourier.blogspot.com