Forget partisan cockfighting for a minute. Amazingly, Congress has been able to unite in the battle against the opioid epidemic that is currently plaguing the country through the bipartisan Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act. President Donald Trump signed it into law on October 24, but is it enough?
While the law funnels more resources to this scourge, it arguably fails to address the underlying causes. What created the opioid crisis in the first place? Why are so many people hooked on these substances?
It’s easy to blame Chinese producers, who have flooded America with cheap illegal fentanyl through the U.S. postal system, but this is a symptom, not a cause.
A Failure of Materialism
Americans should be happier and mentally healthier than ever, and yet we see a deep discontent in the population.
Americans have never been wealthier or had more avenues for leisure than today. Although there has been some wage stagnation for the middle class, even the poorest in the U.S. have access to computers and mobile phones that are more powerful than even governments could access in the 1970s.
Objectively, from a materialistic point of view, everything should be hunky dory. Americans should be happier and mentally healthier than ever, and yet we see a deep discontent in the population. Depression and mental problems among the nation’s youth have skyrocketed, and shockingly, many people have turned to opioids. This is not just a problem relegated to the lower classes; it’s found in all segments of society. Whatever benefits the material gains have given, it has failed at a fundamental level to provide a deep-seated meaning.
A spiritual crisis?
...a sneaky road to hell
Could the problem be spiritual? At precisely a time when America, and all Western countries, are plagued by this strange turmoil, people like Dr. Jordan Peterson have experienced a surge in interest for a spiritual message of meaning through responsibility.
His slogan “clean up your room” is a dog-whistle to people who have fallen prey to empty materialism. Peterson warns of Pleasure Island in the Disney classic Pinocchio as a sneaky road to hell. The opioid crisis might be an expression of loss of meaning.
If that is the case, it is profoundly positive news, because it implies that there is a path of prevention, not just for opioid addiction, but for many of the mental anguishes that plague the nation.
In a nutshell, science has found that traditional wisdom has it right: Most women find that they are happiest when they have few sexual partners and have marriage with children as their main endeavor in life. Men are built to struggle for their families, and the adversity of being the provider for their households and a benefit to their community is a source of deep meaning for many.
Children who grow up without a father, or in otherwise broken homes, are at far greater risk of developing mental health issues, delinquency, and social problems like drug addiction.
In the 1960s, progressives told women that happiness was to be found through a materialistic career and that women needed men like a fish needs a bicycle. Women were herded into the workforce en masse and told to abandon their children. Churches were replaced by shopping malls.
Could it be that the reason that Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again” resonated so much with the voters because he put words to an unspoken crisis: Materialism is not so great? The progressive vision of Pleasure Island leads down a dark and destructive path – barren and empty. What made America great was the pursuit of happiness, the struggle for something meaningful. As such, Trump might inadvertently be doing more to combat the opioid crisis through his national encouragement than the bill he just signed.
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