I don’t know if Americans are more prone to addictions than human beings in other societies, but I’m sure we’ve all read things here and there about ours being an "addictive society." We need our TV, we need our junk food, above all we need our automobiles, not just for transportation, but to help us feel important. (Habituation is the term for a condition similar to addiction but not quite as strong. I will not differentiate in this discussion). A cornerstone of addiction is the psychological mechanism known as denial.

It may be hard to understand how someone can continue in self-destructive behavior, such as drinking so much as to endanger health or competence. But this is easily accomplished if, when addiction starts to form, denial sets in to accompany it.

The point I am trying to make is that we are all "addicts" to a certain extent. Alcoholics can range on a continuum from a person like Winston Churchill who could function very well on a quart of whisky a day to a falling down drunk on skid row. Alcoholics in denial will define an alcoholic as someone who is worse off than they are because of their drinking.

So it is with all the rest of us. The moderately overweight person will not see themselves as fat as much as the thin person will. Very thin folks think "fat" and very fat folks think "thin." Both may be addicted to a behavior that is not healthy for them, but use these respective frames of reference in denial of their real circumstances.

One characteristic of an addict in denial is that they don’t want to hear of their problem. If you tell a non-recovering alcoholic that he is an alcoholic, the odds are that he will not only deny it to you, but he will also get angry and will try to avoid you in the future. It is important that he keep the denial cornerstone in place and you have become a threat to it. Similarly, if you ask a treehugger person why they drive an SUV they will have a rationalization for it that is the product of denial.

Related concept: You have heard about the frog who when put into cool water which is very slowly heated will cook to death instead of jumping out. So the frog has become "comfortable" with his plight to the extent that it leads to his demise.

How are we any different when we use coal-generated electric power when we know that global warming is going to hit big on the earth? What kind of tales do we tell ourselves when we buy a big SUV, or any automobile at all? Are not the Pollyanna types who are perpetually optimistic deep into denial about the world as it is?

I read the other day that psychologists have shown that Pollyannas are happier and healthier than non-Pollyannas. So it is a "natural" way to be to protect one’s mental health. But what is the context? If we can do something about our situation, should we not avoid denying the bad aspects of it so that we will be motivated to try and correct it? As a nation we have 5 % of the population and we use 40% of the resources. We use three times as much energy per capita as Japan or Germany. So do we try to consciously conserve energy? Is it possible to cut back on the heat, or buy less "stuff?" How many persons have had thoughts about how absurd it is to drive alone with 5000 pounds of metal around you. But Detroit makes the kinds of vehicles that sell, and the small cars are not doing very well right now in sales.

Enuff said.