Carl Hitchens - tracking the self …
Carl Hitchens - tracking the self …
2013
Ethan Couch, a North Texas teenager, is given 10 years probation for drunk driving and killing four pedestrians, while injuring 11. State District Judge, Jean Boyd, bought the defense’s argument that the teen suffered from Affluenza and needed rehabilitation, not prison. Defense expert witness-psychologist, G. Dick Miller, 1“testified in court that the teen was a product of Affluenza and unable to link his bad behavior with consequences, due to his parents teaching him that wealth buys privilege.”
A portmanteau of affluence and influenza, Affluenza is a term bandied around by consumerism critics. Quoting the book Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, it is described as 2“a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.”
Taking this social critique into the realm of mental disorders, British psychologist, Oliver James, proposes a correlation between excessive wealth-seeking in consumerist nations and emotional distress. He alleges that 3“English-speaking nations have nearly twice as much emotional distress as mainland Europe and Japan: 21.6 percent vs. 11.5 percent.” He associates the transmitted societal unease referenced in the book to the placing of “a high value on money, possessions, appearances (physical and social) and fame,” leading to mental illness in English-speaking nations, as compared to mainland Europe.
Now, when you consider the legal defense for Ethan Couch, asserting that because of Affluenza he had no moral inhibition to his criminal acts, one would have to ask why would Affluenza apply only to the wealthy. Poor people are equally caught up in the consumerism of the modern world. They are equally affected by the contagion of wanting “more.” They are consumed by the desire to accrue what non-privilege denies them, even at the risk of criminal behavior.
If one had to make a clinical distinction between rich-people Affluenza and poor-people Affluenza, how about poverty-based Affluenza being diagnosed as “Indigenza,” a portmanteau of indigence and influenza, that would similarly mitigate the culpability of a financially-poor victim in the same way as one who is rich.
As we know, though, even where there is equality in crime and circumstances, rich folks make out better. Even suffering the same “disease,” the affluent suffer differently and less severely.
Carl
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Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluenza>
1 Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, John de Graaf, David Wann & Thomas H. Naylor, ISBN 1-57675-199-6
2 Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, John de Graaf, David Wann & Thomas H. Naylor, ISBN 1-57675-199-6
3 James, Oliver (2007). "Appendix 2: Emotional Distress and Inequality: Selfish vs Unselfish Capitalist Nations". Affluenza: How to be Successful and Stay Sane. London: Vermilion. p. 344. ISBN 978-0-09-190010-6. "1. The mean prevalences of emotional distress for the six English-speaking nations combined is 21.6%. The mean for the other nations, mainland Western Europe plus Japan, is 11.5%."
Affluenza
12/21/13