by Tracy Phernetton

Created on: November 27, 2008

Escape from Escapism:

The Dependent Society

An individual is to society like a life-sustaining organ is to the human body. The society needs the individual to exist, and the individual needs society to reflect its' purpose. When a baby is born, it doesn't cry for a beer or a joint. A new born baby represents the final stage of human hood' before social relationships and interactions take over. The only addiction that exists for a baby is a physical and emotional addiction to the care givers. As the child evolves, he/she experiences social relationships and interactions that begin to mold their psychological and emotional reality. One could argue that the child forms an "addiction" to society. From a functionalist's perspective, common values and agreements dictate the individuals' beliefs, choices and even their rebellions. When contradictions, mixed messages and hypocrisy from the older members of society become apparent to the younger individual, the process of emotional and psychological anarchy begins. The addictive, dependent nature of the human being must find another "something" to which they commit or attach themselves to.

Emile Durkheim was an early social thinker that believed that the basis of society assembled itself in a moral order. He proposed that the moral feelings of what is right and wrong were formed by social interactions. I would propose that when an individual begins to see the contradictions in elders, is when that individual feels betrayed by society. It is then, when the individual turns his/her back on the social norms and social obligations, he/she becomes resentful. An addiction to drugs and/or other self destructive patterns can now emerge in this newly open wound. Escapism and rebellious behaviors develop and the feelings of belonging turn into feelings of unworthiness and self doubt. The perfect ingredients for a drug addict have been created.

Durkheim's sociological theories were in accordance with the "Functionalist" or "Order" paradigms in Sociology. An order/functional sociologist would say that drug abuse only exists because the social conditions were just right for the drug abuse to occur. This social condition is called the anomie. The anomie in this case is the individuals' discovery of the moral hypocrisy that surrounds him. That discovery convinces the individual to back away from social norms, social rituals and social obligations; rebelling against all that was once so important and a part of that individual. When

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