Politeia: New Year's Resolution? We Help You Kick the Habit!

The nanny super state continues to enlarge its role. It's holding a sway over people's minds, taking over chunks of normal human responsibilities that are considered too hefty for 'us victims'. This permanent status of ward-of-state allows us the luxury of never really having to grow up. Evil conspiracy theorists have suggested that mass control on such a scale is only possible, if large sections of society enslave themselves on a voluntary basis. Enter sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, Narcissism induced arrested development, coupled with extreme social incontinence.

The continued 'discoveries' of all kinds of addictions, from alcohol and mood enhancers to chemical drugs of any description, and from strychnine laced tobacco to glue, sex and Internet, are peeps into human dependence that seemingly have more to do with the prosperity of the rehab industry than with any real addiction. It's also the outcome of state and industry sponsored academic research into the population's state of health. It is a well known phenomenon that the results obtained, invariably suit the agenda of the sponsor.

Take kicking the smoking habit, which is supposedly one of the hardest things to do, until one realises that the stories surrounding smoking and the associated withdrawal symptoms are just myths. The debunking of these myths - erected on the one hand by the promotional policies of the tobacco companies, and on the other by the victim-based legal industry - is about eighty percent of the work of nicotine 'rehab', as advocated by author Allen Carr.

Smoking today does nothing for your public image, nor does it settle the nerves, or assist concentration. Smoking paves both the pulmonary system and the teeth with tar, causes cancer, and stinks.

Kicking the habit on the other hand leads to a better health and freedom from addiction, not to mention the relief - wow! - of being able to sit through an entire meeting without having to balance the prevailing weather conditions against the intensity of 'the urge'!

The latter - far from being life threatening - is a brief moment in time of craving a cigarette: what Carr calls "the little monster that must be starved out of existence". It usually doesn't last much longer than a minute or so; it cannot be timed accurately, because awareness of the sensation wouldn't stop in such case. As the 'starvation' process continues, the frequency and intensity of craving a smoke diminishes. The trick is, not to give it more substance than it warrants: the sooner it is ignored, the quicker it passes out of consciousness - least said, soonest mended is the best means of controling the little monster!

But - as the legal industry claims - that the heavily addictive substance of strychnine is added to cigarettes by the tobacco companies to better enslave the consumer, how come there's the occasional smoker (restricted to weekends or parties)? Or people who smoke only during evenings? Right ... myth debunked!

Carr's method helped me quiting overnight, twice, with a packet of cigarettes in full view and eventually forgotten until long after I kicked the habit. That is no boast on my part: the beauty of the reality method is, that it doesn't involve will-power.

We are mentally enslaving ourselves through our own ingrained beliefs in addiction and the associated mythology that is part and parcel of the problem. There's no such a thing as sex addiction! There are just people who misguidedly believe that every single urge needs to be rewarded if they are to lead the long, happy, and healthy lives as prescribed by postmodern society centered around the Ego and its self-devised Personal Universe. The contrary is the case!

Motivated by reasons best known to themselves, the psychologists producing these addiction myths 'discover' new ones all the time - sitting next to ludicrous and inappropriate polls - filling up third rate websites, weekend editions of newspapers, and girly magazines: the postmodern equivalent of the old wives' tale.

The realization we are enslaving ourselves through the belief in these myths is about eighty percent of quitting. The balance twenty percent is made up by the joyous anticipation of freedom from psychological enslavement to an unhealthy product.

The psychological mechanism is perhaps best illustrated by a variation of Plato's Allegory of the Cave: chained prisoners sit in a cave, backs to the entrance. The shadows of things moving outside are projected by the light onto the inner wall of the cave. Since the prisoners have never been outside the cave, they believe the shadows to be reality. As one succeeds in escaping, he realizes that he has lived all his life in the shadow of an illusion. This is not part of the actual allegory, but now imagine the chains not to have been there at all, but a figment of the prisoners imagination made possible by the darkness of the cave. The chains are their addiction and enslavement.

Is your New Year's resolution to kick the habit and regain control over your own actions? Keep the above in mind, and above all - ignoring the urge isn't lethal! If you decide you need further guidance by reading the book, then - and this is key - do not make any attempts to quit before you've read the book cover to cover. If health issues are at stake, do not delay and go to the book shop - now!

Good luck! And by all means, drop us a line if you think it may help.

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