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I have been thinking about illness stigma a lot this past year and a half, because I realized pretty early on that I feared the embarrassment of getting COVID, and the shame of knowing I might have been part of a chain of COVID transmission, at least as much as I feared actual health consequences from COVID happening to me or my household. It was going to feel like my fault, and like something everyone would judge me for, if I got it more than any other illness, communicable or not, has ever felt like that. There's a compare-and-contrast to be drawn here with STI stigma, I suspect.
A friend once observed that people believe in conspiracy theories for the same reason they believe in god. It’s just too existentially overwhelming to accept that we live in a random universe in which shit just happens.
I think there’s something to that idea. The notion there are vast swathes of life over which you have no control and you can be struck down for reasons that have no greater meaning can be rather terrifying — and depressing.
I suspect that’s why Christianity is so focused on free will (which some neuroscientists say doesn’t exist) and punishment when you fail to use it to do the “right” things.
It’s also reflected in the New Age idea that “thoughts become things” and you can manifest the life you want by thinking the right way.
The obvious downside is that lots of people who do the right things and think the right thoughts still end up sick and poor. Or struck down for some unforeseen reason.
I think the Greek philosopher Epictetus had it right when he said: “Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle. Some things are within your control. And some things are not.”
You just have to figure out which is which. Pro tip: a lot more is not in your control than is.
I spent nearly two decades in SF's dance music scene before the kids came and I moved north during the middle of the last decade. During that time, I ingested more drugs and booze than I could remotely quantify. I wrecked many Sundays (and Mondays) recovering.
But you know what? I mentally and physically needed what that world offers. "Communal effervescence", physical workouts, being one with music and others, a loving community, and the sheer fun of drugs. Yet we assign a negative health connotation here. And unpacking it, why is this? Many reasons too long to list. I mean, I *was* partying with godless heathens.
But the fact is, when we started dancing and partying again, we get refreshed. We realize that we clearly needed. And we feel healthier afterwards.
Maybe it's just a consequence for that lovely piece of policy called the War on Drugs. Which fucked our heads up in so many ways, and we're barely beginning to unpack how. And as we do explore the ways this awful piece of our nation's existence governed us, we might just learn some great things in the meantime.
So my ramble is this: here's a potential subject for this newsletter. Unpacking the trauma and flat-out wrong social behaviors inspired by the War on Drugs.
I have been thinking about illness stigma a lot this past year and a half, because I realized pretty early on that I feared the embarrassment of getting COVID, and the shame of knowing I might have been part of a chain of COVID transmission, at least as much as I feared actual health consequences from COVID happening to me or my household. It was going to feel like my fault, and like something everyone would judge me for, if I got it more than any other illness, communicable or not, has ever felt like that. There's a compare-and-contrast to be drawn here with STI stigma, I suspect.
A friend once observed that people believe in conspiracy theories for the same reason they believe in god. It’s just too existentially overwhelming to accept that we live in a random universe in which shit just happens.
I think there’s something to that idea. The notion there are vast swathes of life over which you have no control and you can be struck down for reasons that have no greater meaning can be rather terrifying — and depressing.
I suspect that’s why Christianity is so focused on free will (which some neuroscientists say doesn’t exist) and punishment when you fail to use it to do the “right” things.
It’s also reflected in the New Age idea that “thoughts become things” and you can manifest the life you want by thinking the right way.
The obvious downside is that lots of people who do the right things and think the right thoughts still end up sick and poor. Or struck down for some unforeseen reason.
I think the Greek philosopher Epictetus had it right when he said: “Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle. Some things are within your control. And some things are not.”
You just have to figure out which is which. Pro tip: a lot more is not in your control than is.
Great newsletter, as usual.
Something that I'm not sure correlates, but maybe, and I've been thinking about it alot lately, stems from this article on the return of dance music in New York. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/dept-of-returns/clubbing-is-a-lifeline-and-its-back. And one of the main points is that the people involved in the scene *needed* it all back.
I spent nearly two decades in SF's dance music scene before the kids came and I moved north during the middle of the last decade. During that time, I ingested more drugs and booze than I could remotely quantify. I wrecked many Sundays (and Mondays) recovering.
But you know what? I mentally and physically needed what that world offers. "Communal effervescence", physical workouts, being one with music and others, a loving community, and the sheer fun of drugs. Yet we assign a negative health connotation here. And unpacking it, why is this? Many reasons too long to list. I mean, I *was* partying with godless heathens.
But the fact is, when we started dancing and partying again, we get refreshed. We realize that we clearly needed. And we feel healthier afterwards.
Maybe it's just a consequence for that lovely piece of policy called the War on Drugs. Which fucked our heads up in so many ways, and we're barely beginning to unpack how. And as we do explore the ways this awful piece of our nation's existence governed us, we might just learn some great things in the meantime.
So my ramble is this: here's a potential subject for this newsletter. Unpacking the trauma and flat-out wrong social behaviors inspired by the War on Drugs.