Furious Seasons

March 08, 2007

The Nanny State: Happiness, Alcohol, Public Health And B.

A neighbor of mine, whom I'll call B., is about to be evicted from his apartment here in Seattle. He's 61 years old and has had schizophrenia since he was in his early-20s. But I'll come back to that problem in a bit. There are some other things about American society that are bugging me lately--diversity embracing progressive-liberals and fun-killing social conservatives are making scary music together again--and they all circle back to B. Seriously.

I happened to catch the NBC "Nightly News" Tuesday evening and I got a two-fer of irritation once the report dispensed with Scooter Libby's guilt, Tim Russert's glory and an update on the health care insanity with Iraq War veterans. Not that those three tidbits didn't irritate me. Especially the bit about Russert. Soon after, the program shifted to reports on health and human happiness, and on the "crisis" of underage drinking in America. Nancy Snyderman, an MD and chief medical editor on NBC, offered this lede on happiness:

"Happiness: Is it a state of mind? Or a state of health? A growing body of research says it's both."

"Breaking news," I thought, thinking back over the last 2,500 years of philosophy wherein, you may recall, wise people cannot truly hammer out this happiness thing and how everyone can attain it. Then:

"Dr. Donald Rosen is a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Sciences University. 'Science is just beginning to be able to measure, understand and propose mechanisms for a way of attaining a state of mind that can have as significant an impact on health as diet, exercise or not smoking,' he says."

Well, of course, he's a psychiatrist. Snyderman's report went from there, unquestioningly assuming that there is this state called "happiness," that medical science knows how to measure it and, thus, what a doctor says about it must be true, and that this is all very good for you. You'll live longer. Snyderman rolled out a 90-something nun as proof.

"At 96, [Sister] Kunkel has never had a major health problem, and only recently — and reluctantly —started using a cane. 'I look back on a happy life with prayerful gratitude,' she says. Words to live by, indeed."

Please. Snyderman's report wasn't so much about facts as it was about subtext. Even though she was citing alleged scientific evidence. But that's part of a trend I've noticed in medical reportage of late--depression is connected with diabetes is linked with heart ailments is associated with insomnia is highly indicative of risk taking is the sure sign of unhealthy behavior is the probabilistic driver of living less than the average life span. And so on. Scientists have studied these matters, factored out confounding events and are hear to tell us, so we'd better listen. And act appropriately.

Unhappiness is depression. Depression causes diabetes. Diabetes makes more depression. Depression and diabetes result in shorter lives. An average life span that is not expanding at all times is not good. It costs society untold billions of dollars each year. Medical and public health authorities are concerned. Non-depression is the cure for diabetes. Every citizen must embrace a healthy lifestyle in every facet of their lives. Twigs and tofu for dinner. Safe sex. No smoking. No red meat. Take public transit. Get to bed by 11 p.m. Jog three miles a day. Don't scold your children. No more F's in school--we give out E's. Walk your dog on a leash. Drink eight glasses of cool spring water a day. Soymilk in your coffee. If you drink coffee!

I am not exaggerating. That's the type of talk we are hearing from doctors and the media these days. It's gotten so thick out there that soda companies are recasting their drinks as healthy--not just as diet sodas, but reformulated for the yoga crowd.

My own thinking on this is that when a doctor starts talking about medicalizing happiness, then it is time to run for the hills. Or perhaps the gun safe. Before the doctor tries to drag you to an SSRI/SSNRI/atypical antipsychotic-jammed medicine cabinet. Seriously, though, it's dangerous for the media to let doctors and public health dweebs carry on like this. Why? Because these clowns cannot even define happiness (Is it contentment? Euphoria? A variety of religious experience? An orgasm? The Universal Ooooom?) and if they cannot do that, then I should trust them to tell me how to attain it because why. But the media does trust them, and you'll rarely see a countering, skeptical viewpoint introduced in their reports. That's because doctors--OK, some of them--have jumped the traces of their profession and become priests and soothsayers in a secular, post-modern way.

Even worse is that doctors, once partners in the bumps and bruises and tragedy of human life, have set themselves up as proxies for how people should feel, look, behave and, in short, live. That's why they never define what they mean by happiness because it is about how doctors are--can't you see how happy and healthy they are right there on camera, sitting on the presumed mount of human culture and nudging us to be like them? And passing laws where many of us refuse to comply because we are okay with ourselves just the way that we already are. They aren't okay with us. We must be happy.

Religious conservatives have always been happy with this kind of enforced behavior and nanny statism. God told them it was cool. Or maybe it was Jesus. (You remember the temperance movement, right?) While it's always been easy to discount the Jesus crowd in the hurly-burly of urban living because they make up a minority of voters, it's much harder to discount progressive-liberals--at least it is in Seattle. It's prog-lib, organic produce, fair-trade coffee and bicycling to work 24/7 around here. So ingrained is yoga in the local vernacular that features writers can sprinkle their prose with phrases like "inverted plow" and everyone will know what is meant. Such folks make up, um, 80 percent of the electorate (how else could you explain Congressman-for-life Rep. Jim McDermott?). And this green bloc of the nanny state has jumped on the medicalization of happiness during my adult life in ways that are turning me into a Libertarian.

Smoking bans. Gun bans. Discipline-free school districts pressing parents to medicate moody children or they'll call CPS. Menu warnings that some meat items may be raw or undercooked (Um, I'd hope so). Parenting classes. All of that is going down in the Emerald City, or isn't far from the fantasy life of prog-libs. Back East, the Washington Post editorial page last year declared that no one has a right to be psychotic, regardless of whether they might be a possible threat to anyone else. The idea that someone might want to be out there is just too much!

Last week, I went to a dinner party that was peopled with the social justice crowd. None of them ate meat. None smoked. There, I was told that auto drivers must be made to "suffer." And so on. These are the shock troops of the re-education of urban America. They'll be after alcohol next.

Which brings me to underage drinking. By which we mean teenage partying, risky behavior, unsafe sex and, cue the Cymbalta commercial, depression. "Nightly News" was on the case Tuesday, CNN's Lou Dobbs was the night before and so were the nation's papers. Had some drunk 15-year-old gone off with an AK-47? No, but the acting Surgeon General (who is neither a surgeon or a general) had just issued a report on teens and hooch:

"'Alcohol remains the most heavily abused substance by America's youth,' [Surgeon General] Moritsugu said. He said the report calls for a 'change in the culture and attitudes toward drinking in America. We can no longer ignore what alcohol is doing to our children.'"

News accounts of the report don't cite an increase in teen drinking or tie it to any other social storm system. But the Surgeon General doesn't like booze, regardless of the age of the imbiber, and neither do doctors. NBC had a doctor on camera complaining about a 41 percent increase in alcohol advertising on TV. Having watched beer ads, oh, once or twice, I'd say that it's more like a 41 percent increase in T&A. But the media sits as stenographers for this kind of nonsense and tells us about the big crisis we face. Which really boils down to unhappiness. That's the context at any rate.

Faced with the prospect of parenting an awkward teen who maybe mopes too much and doesn't have too many friends, I'd hook him or her up with the party crowd and Jack Daniels well before I'd order them to swallow Paxil. Not that I have kids, but booze is a bit more predictable in its effects than an SSRI. But still alcohol has taken Americans outside of themselves--their workaday at the workstation at 8 a.m. selves--in ways that doctors and nanny staters don't like. Never have. For them, the preferred solution is society-wide depression screening (Teen Screen, the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, last week's Newsweek on men and depression) and medication. Meds are fine if someone is really fucked up, but this whole push is really as outrageous as Eli Lilly's campaign to convince doctors that agitated single mothers are bipolar and should be dosed with an antipsychotic. Zyprexa in this case. It's as dumb as the Seroquel ads on MySpace and the telephone booth ads for Abilify. There's too much over-reaching going on here. And not enough encouragement that people actually know themselves (a boring old Socratic dictum) and find meaning in life's daily struggle (that'd be Shakespeare there) and actually work on the shit that is fucking them up. Technology is easier and besides there's always a doctor there to tell you that the technology is good for you. OK, they all aren't that dogmatic. But the thought leader types sure are. That's why they are thought leaders.

I was pondering all of that the other night while trying to figure out how to help B. escape the clutches of the nanny state which claims to be helping him. We've got a smoking ban in Washington State that makes the other state-wide bans look open-minded. Here, it is illegal to stand within 25 feet of a building entrance while smoking. Voters approved it as part of kicking smokers out of bars in 2005. So hated are smokers in well-intentioned, passive-aggressive Seattle that the local public health department is now encouraging property management companies and condo associations to ban smoking in private residences.

B.'s landlord was apparently listening and told his resident of ten years that he had to be out by the end of the month. B. smokes two to three packs a day--a quit plan ain't exactly going to work with a 61-year-old who gets a 300 mg. intramuscular shot of Haldol every three weeks. Besides, there is plenty of case evidence that there is something about nicotine that is helpful to a large percentage of people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. (No, I am not making that up.) In B.'s case, he's explained to me that a monster nicotine rush in the morning awakens him from his medicated sleep.

Your public health department at work. The sadder thing is that B., an Air Force veteran, has played by the rules every step of the way--to a degree that would make Fuller Torrey weep--and hasn't seen the inside of a psych unit or jail cell in over 20 years. In five years, I've smelled booze on his breath once. Knowing B. well, I fear that he will end up in a psych unit, jail or worse in short order, if he's unable to find housing in my neighborhood with maybe a 1 percent vacancy rate. There are a dozen or more of us around here who are B.'s support system. We are the ones who aren't flustered in the least when he walks up wearing a stained trench coat, a GPC tucked in the corner of his mouth, and says, "Give me that coffee, white boy." A couple of weeks ago, he carried a couple of bags of trash out of a local coffee shop on his way to the dumpsters out back. For this, he gets free coffee. I looked at him hefting the bags. B. winked at me and said, "Cocaine" in his thick-tongued accent and kept walking.

Not so long ago, I was in line for coffee one morning, earlier than usual. B. shuffled into the place--that'd be from the Haldol--with his hair all Keith Richards scraggly. He's skinny and, to people who don't know his ways, looks disoriented. "Is he OK?" a man in line asked me.

"He's OK," I replied.

"He looks hungry."

"Oh, he's well-taken care of."

"Really?"

"About as well as anyone with four decades of schizophrenia and medications can be."

My fear is that if B. moves to another neighborhood, people there won't find him charming at all and will call the police. B. likes to poke through dumpsters, looking for cast-off fishing creels, cameras and whatever else he can scrounge up. He sells these items to a nearby for-profit thrift store sometimes or to neighbors he knows. I once paid him $5 for an unopened Al Green's "Greatest Hits." When the cops in our local precinct catch B. in the dumpsters, they make sure he hasn't been up to identity theft and let him move along. It's his urban sport and everyone knows it. In a different precinct, it won't work out so well, I'd wager.

Over the last two decades, the public mental health crowd has worked to get people like B. out of state hospitals and awful residential treatment facilities and into community-based living. It's more humane, better for the patients long-term recovery and normalization and cheaper. All of that is true.

So I wonder how expensive things might get when my neighborhood's first smoking refugee is turned out of his community-based support? My hunch is that B. won't be very happy. But I'm sure the public health crowd will blame Phillip Morris.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at March 8, 2007 12:01 AM

del.icio.us Digg it reddit

Comments

Well you really made me start thinking this morning. Your thinking about the nature of happiness is something I think a lot about too. I attempted to find a quote by Socrates on happiness because in high school I was very inspired by a movie I watched in my "mentally gifted minor" class (MGM,disgusting, isn't it)Anyway in this class we did get to consider philosophy in ways the rest of my school missed out. Every child should be considered mentally gifted...anyway, I digress.

What moved me so much was at the end of the movie it described what happiness was as far as Socrates was concerned. (I searched the web for a Socrates quote that might be a synopsis for the conclusion made in this move, but couldn't find one and I'm certainly not a Socrates scholar, so forgive my clumsiness in recalling exactly what moved me so much...my memory is known to be faulty as well)

But what I remember is that the movie concluded that what Socrates believed was that happiness was not a state of mind achieved on a daily basis. There might be moments of "happiness" but not a constant state of being. Happiness was to Socrates the culmination of a life well lived. To be able to come to the end of ones life and know that one has lived as best as one could. A final conclusion of contentment, perhaps, in a life well lived. And I would assume that means a life lived with integrity, and honesty, not perfection or daily pleasure.

Anyway, I may be totally mangling what Socrates said, but I was moved at that young age and have always held that view of happiness in some vague way in my mind. As I struggle with depression and other difficult mood states I simply think, am I living with integrity, am I helping others in whatever small way that I can. Will I be able to look back at my life when the end comes and say I've lived a life with integrity and honesty. I think I can say that much now. Have I felt happy most of my life. Absolutely not. I've virtually never felt happy. But as I understood the movie about happiness...it's simply not a daily feeling. And that is what modern culture suggests happiness should be.

The medicalization of anything other than happiness presupposes that life is not filled with suffering. I've never heard of a philosophy or religion througout the ages that didn't contend with the human condition being one fraught with suffering. And as I understand that, that includes all of us, not just those of us that are labeled depressed or disturbed in some other kind of way.

The New Age "religions" of course dispute this, but I've not run into any "practicing" New Agers that haven't been totally fucked up in some way.

Once I've met a woman who I will venture to say was totally happy. She made everyone she touched feel like the most important person in her life. She was incredibly giving. But I also know, because she was honest, that she suffered. The most giving, beautiful human being I've ever met suffered and I dare say she was supremely happy as well, in large part because she suffered and accepted it as part of life. She was fully human and did not pretend otherwise.

I hope your friend finds a place to live. Schizophrenics have a special place in my heart. I worked with many as a social worker. One of my jobs was exclusively working with them in a community setting. They all smoked and I supported their habits, understanding that it helped (I certainly supported them if they really wanted to quit as well, but not if they were simply feeling guilty because of all the societal pressures against smoking.) I told them not to worry about what the doctors laid on them. I told them there were much greater things to be concerned about. Most of their care providers gave them a constant mantra to quit smoking. And, just to support your assertion, Philip, it's true...there are studies that support the use of nicotine for schizophrenics.

good post.

Posted by: Gianna at March 8, 2007 02:49 AM

I'd like to add, that wonderful woman I mentioned died in a tragic car accident. She died lying next to a friend of hers, who is also a friend of mine. She knew she was dying and she was mostly concerned about her friend lying on the gurney next to her. She offered words of comfort. She died in peace, knowing that she was about to die, and passed on her loving-kindness to my friend, who is another inspiring woman.

Posted by: Gianna at March 8, 2007 03:00 AM

Philip--

Did you take a voyage through my head sometime recently? (You may have overlooked immigration issues and constitutional erosion, but you obviously encountered many of the other issues troubling me.) You have taken my rambling, troubled, disorganized thought-feelings and expressed them in an organized, rational, and quite frankly, BEAUTIFUL manner.

Thank you for this AWESOME piece of journalism.

Posted by: Melody at March 8, 2007 04:20 AM

I have to concur with the above post. I've had a similar assortment of thoughts in my head, all of them in a jumble, and you've succeeded in expressing concerns and outrages that I myself have felt, quite beautifully. I subscribed to this blog several weeks ago and I've been greatly enjoying it since. Looking forward to hearing what else you have to say.

Posted by: Justin at March 8, 2007 07:10 AM

I am what I call myself: a Socratic Sojourner. I am admittedly not happy right now. I am also not depressed. I am able to see my situational unhappiness for what it is; don't like it; and also don't need to medicate it.

My Grandmother taught me that the best things in life are free. I taught that to my kids. She chained smoked until she died at age 90. She refused to ever take an aspirin. She left us 20'somethings in the dust when she hauled us up and down the streets of San Francisco.

When she told a story; she got out a globe, showed us where she was talking about.

She always told me "You have to know where youve been, before you know where you are going."

I bring her into this fantastic discussion on happiness, and doctor's wanting to push pills, or find "reasons" we are all happy or unhappy.

She lived a life that was rich; yet she did not have much money. She didn't need money; sunsets are free. She was a happy, and content person, who in these strange medical days, defied "their odds". What was her secret they would say?

Well, she smoked 3 packs a day. She refused all medications. She read books, and walked miles, made friends in her apartment building of all ages, and told me "I have lived a good life; I had a beginning, a middle and and end, like a good book.When I die, go out for ice cream."

When she died; she donated her body to "science".

Every time I see Mt. Rainier; I hear her voice calling it "Old Snow Cone.".

This is a fantastic entry Philip.

Posted by: Stephany at March 8, 2007 08:11 AM

Slippery slope.

A drinker and smoker myself, those are my personal choices. But as someone who believes in democracy over authoritarianism, I have to let personal bias be bygones to the tyranny of the majority.

Happiness as a definition is elusive. It is an ideal, not an objective phenomena. While science can give insights to how the brain reacts during happiness it can only provide data, not a definition.

A definition of happiness is a cultural definition, but still must be demarcated as to whether it is a practical discipline or a theoretical one.

I prefer Aristotle's definition - Eudaimonia, wherin "Happiness" is not a mood or temporary state, but a state achieved through a lifetime of virtuous action, accompanied by some measure of good fortune. Thus it has less to do with a state of mind than a moral disposition.

Posted by: zipzip at March 8, 2007 08:27 AM

"But that's part of a trend I've noticed in medical reportage of late--depression is connected with diabetes is linked with heart ailments is associated with insomnia is highly indicative of risk taking is the sure sign of unhealthy behavior is the probabilistic driver of living less than the average life span."

I agree. It seems as though everything we eat do or say is linked to increased risk of "[fill in the blank]." It almost makes me wish for the 1950s when people could eat anything without regard or fear.

"Every citizen must embrace a healthy lifestyle in every facet of their lives. Twigs and tofu for dinner. Safe sex. No smoking. No red meat. Take public transit. Get to bed by 11 p.m. Jog three miles a day. Don't scold your children. No more F's in school--we give out E's. Walk your dog on a leash. Drink eight glasses of cool spring water a day. Soymilk in your coffee. If you drink coffee!

I am not exaggerating."

No, you are not.(And the "E" thing pisses me off.) Don't even get me started on media depictions of how we all should look, act, and aspire to be. Saddest story: http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/top_story/story/7269343p-7125397c.html

I have to agree with Melody; that was a nice rant. I agree with many of your happiness sentiments, but I do have a few questions that I'll probably send to you via e-mail.

Posted by: Marissa Miller at March 8, 2007 09:55 AM

This is a very provocative post and there’s a lot of meat here about some unfortunate problems with our society and our culture right now. But in some ways I take exception to the lambasting those who promote lifestyle changes seem to be taking in your post. And I sure don’t believe that docs are promoting lifestyle changes (as you imply) nearly as much as they should be – and the media – well it depends on which ones you read I guess. But no doc I’ve been to ever promotes twigs and tofu, yoga, or even 8 glasses of water. I wish they would to be honest although I do agree I don’t want to see this stuff imposed by a nanny state. Yes, docs are saying unhappiness causes ill health and frankly, I think it’s the other way around -- ill health causes unhappiness, but I guess it’s a chicken and egg sort of thing and a vicious circle besides, but I sure think it’s a lot easier to do something about ill health when it starts than it is “unhappiness” which as you say can be hard to define and measure. The idea of “unhappiness” or depression causing illness is of course a set up to get treated for depression – I don’t think it’s used very often as an excuse by the medical profession anyway for starting yoga. I wish it were. Somehow the docs want us to believe that if we get treated for unhappiness and stop being depressed all our other ills will disappear. That is far from what happens with psych meds. They only lead to an increase of all sorts of inexplicable ills that no one ever seems to connect to the offending agents.

But while we’re dumping on the unhappiness creates ill health argument let’s not throw out the idea that ill health and poor lifestyle choices DO make us unhappy. The fact is I do think there is a “crisis” in underage drinking and I do have kids. Binge drinking at college campuses and even in high schools is totally out of control. Alcohol does have profound effects on the brain, especially teen brains, and can do lasting damage. Excess alcohol consumption is extremely harmful at any age at least as bad as illegal (and legal) drugs. And believe me, I enjoy a glass of wine as much as the next person but let’s try to keep it as part of the picture of fine dining and good entertainment. I certainly don’t think your friend B (and it’s really great that you can respect and honor someone psychotic as your friend – this is so important) should be thrown out of his own apartment for smoking but I do think smoking is awful and that more should be done to discourage young people from ever starting. As for yoga it’s been an absolute life-saver for me and I truly believe it’s one of the best things anyone can do for their health – have to get the right teacher and there are a lot of crap studios and teachers out there but if you get the best there is nothing like it. Headstands are the best antidepressant out there – I kid you not. And while I’m going in this direction good nutrition is vastly underestimated as a path to mental health. The brain can’t store it’s own fuel. It is essential for everyone to know something about what and how to eat. Learning to cook can be one of the best health enhancing things anyone can do yet many docs will say nutrition has little effect. They’re crazy.

So while I agree that being around people who are self-righteous about their lifestyles and try to impose it by peer pressure, bureaucratic authority or arrogant posturing is bloody annoying, I still think it’s time to take lifestyle issues extremely seriously in the pursuit of good health and true healing.

Posted by: Sara at March 8, 2007 04:25 PM

GREAT discussion & postings, many thanks!!! Maybe these thoughts from our work will help...

A Happy Life is guided by goodness, fueled with fun and spiritually successful which means living by only the highest and best values.

Virtue and Goodness are the basis for all happiness. Many people chase after success thinking success will bring them happiness but there are lots of very successful people who are not especially happy.

A Happy Life is Pleasant & Pleasing,
Purposeful & Productive,
Prosperous & Spiritually Successful.

See http://HappinessHabit.com for more articles on how to live a happy life from our Happiness Habit Research.

Make Happiness YOUR Habit,

Michele Moore, author of
How To Live A Happy Life -
101 Ways To Be Happier

Posted by: Michele Moore at March 8, 2007 09:10 PM

I would like to address another topic in this excellent entry. I agree with other comments; that this post holds within it, many topics that also have been on my mind.

The mental health system, and the support that "B" is getting.

The reality is that "B" has what every mental health patient needs, in an outpatient setting. He has support, friends, and people looking out for him. Allowing him to be who he is, without judgement. The services in the state of Washington for this kind of support, individualized per the patient's needs does not exist in the residential care facilities, or housing situations offered in the mental health system. There are VERY few beds available, and the housing is very limited. Because "B" has his support system with Philip and others; is in my opinion WHY "B" is successfully living on his own, with schizophrenia in Washington State. The system is lacking funding, and outpatient services. Case managers are so over-loaded, that it takes months to see one, and if you are lucky to even gain case management. Due to my daughter having her home to reside with myself; her case manager with Seattle Mental Health sighs a relief; that she does not need to be "maintained" within the system. By me being able to support my daughter, allows others to bump up on the list.

This village; that Philip and his friends and neighbors have created for "B" is crucial for "B"'s positive outcome and successfully living outside of Western State Hospital. That's the plain truth. IF "B" has no place to live due to cigarette bans; "B" will most likely end up on the streets; and possibly end up in a psych ward. There are times, when laws like the smoking ban go too far. In the case of Washington State mental health system, this law needs to be ignored. This nanny-state law, will in fact cost the state more money, when someone such as "B" ends up on the streets, or in a County or the State Hospital.

Let him live his life. Leave him alone. He needs his support circle that is giving him his life, and freedom from life in a locked down State Mental Institution.

I commend everyone who is part of "B"s life, and support system, right down to the coffee place. I am thankful that "B" is not someone I met inside a psychiatric hospital, or living on the streets.

Posted by: Stephany at March 9, 2007 04:56 PM

Just revisiting this post and am very invigorated by the well thought-out, sympathetic and practical responses.

I'd like to see this conversation continue. Maybe we can add a forum to Furious Sessions page to discuss such ideas in greater detail.

Posted by: zipzip at March 10, 2007 07:14 AM

Most important point when you were ranting about kids:

"Not that I have kids..."

You may find your attitudes shift when and if you do.

Posted by: Pete Perkicken at March 11, 2007 09:53 AM

oh after working with kids in schools for several years and dealing with lots of friends' 'problem kids' for lack of a better term, i am pretty comfortable in my assertions. presently i am watching a major school district try and force a friend into medicating their kid. kinda ugly.

Posted by: Philip Dawdy at March 11, 2007 05:43 PM

Re: School District's forcing medications: Once a child is ON a psych med, they are labeled, and parents are harrassed into keeping medications on board, along with (personal experience here)demanding monthly psychiatric/doctor appointments throughout the school year, as well as demanding release of information paperwork.
One of my daughter's psychiatrist's was hounded for one hour on the telephone by a school psychologist, demanding him tell her "how to teach (my daughter)her." He sent the school district a bill for a couple of hundred bucks on that call. They paid it.
Schools want "cookie cutter perfect kids". If your child does not meet that rediculous criteria, (and most won't) a parent is under full-blown scrutiny. I can say this as a parent and as a person who works in a school district.
It DOES get ugly.

Posted by: Stephany at March 12, 2007 10:53 AM

You do understand that you are my favorite writer ever, right?

I live in the Berkeley hills and am filled with seething rage daily at the Prius-driving I've-got-all-the-answers elite, who bristle at processed sugar and a banana not certified organic, but happily medicate their kids with adderall, seroquel and the like.

Why? because it's the dictatorship of the downtrodden. If you ascribe bad behavior or misfortune a disease diagnosis, you are eligible for Compassion. Then you get a bumper sticker and a foundation and a $150/ hour therapy session. Then you get a special all organic, gluten-free, grass fed diet. Because you are special. It's okay to consume all you want as long as what you consume is overpriced and stamped with an "all natural" or "all organic" or "cruelty free" sticker. Then it's all okay.

Guess what dudes? The people in "developing" countries like Thailand, India and Brazil that you venerate through your petty acts of Compassionate consumerism do not buy organic groceries, or drive Priuses, or do Pilates, or gobble anti-depressants made by Eli Lilly all the while deriding corporate America. You're the biggest consumer market out there. Stop denying it and you'll stop be so annoying.

I am sure yoga is helpful to a lot of people. You know what is (occasionally) helpful to me? Driving around in my AUTOMOBILE smoking CIGARETTES and listening to LOUD MUSIC. I guess I'll consider myself a classicist.

Posted by: Lily at March 18, 2007 08:25 PM

Lily,

I love your candid comments here.

Do you pay taxes?

Posted by: Stephany at March 18, 2007 10:07 PM