It takes a tremendous amount of will power to quit an addiction, right?
So what is so unreasonable about saying that will power is lacking in people who can’t quit an addiction?
Hitchens is not saying addiction dies does not exist, he is objecting to the idea of calling it physical disease or “allergy of the body”.
In the same way it takes will power to beat cancer or heart disease or glaucoma.
So what is so unreasonable about saying that will power is lacking in people who can’t quit an addiction?
Is it unreasonable to say will power is lacking in people who aren't cured of a disease yet? If they'd just get some will power they'd cure it.
Hitchens is not saying addiction dies does not exist, he is objecting to the idea of calling it physical disease or “allergy of the body”.
I disagree on both parts. He is implying that addiction does not exist, that addicts lack the will power to stop and that said lack of will power is the sole source of the problem. Luckily, he is not an addict [neither am I but I have known a number of them closely.]
I stand by my assertion - Hitchens is ignorant. The fundamental problem in discussing the issue is that those who have not had experience with the issue or lived through a loved one suffering from addiction are simply ignorant. They're not being intentionally vicious, they just don't understand.
Explain me this, then. I cannot physically become an addict. I can’t drink too much. The revulsion that my body has to drugs and alcohol prevent it.
Just as opposite, both my sister and brother love alcohol and have to do the AA protocols in order not to be under alcohol’s control.
My other sister is under marijuana’s control.
I have tried both of these, alcohol and marijuana and hate them, not because of being on my high horse, but because of how awful they make me feel.