Addicts and Enablers: US Citizens and the Federal Government

My brother made an interesting remark when he said that Americans felt so bad after 911 that they over spent to make themselves feel better. It’s parallel to a person using eating or shopping as a way of coping with stress. What an interesting insight!
I often say in counseling that often our biggest problem is not the problem or fear we have, but how we choose to cope with it. The strategies and solutions we implement to deal with “the problem” become bigger problems than the problem they’re trying to help. Becoming obese from using food as a stress reliever becomes a huge problem. Accumulating a large amount of debt from using shopping as a coping behavior balloons into a huge problem. Drinking to cope causes huge problems. These solutions are not helping a person, they’re just making things worse!
Maybe we were so traumatized by 911 that we (the government and citizens) spent away to try to make ourselves feel better. Now we need to pay off our debt, and like any reduction plan, starting and sticking to the plan is the hardest part. Will America make the commitment to get out of debt or will we just open up another credit card so that our lifestyle does not have to change? It appears that we just applied for another credit card, with a $1.5 Trillion dollar line of credit (the 2 Stimulus packages)!
There’s a saying in Alcoholics Anonymous that a person is not ready to change until he hits bottom, until he is so desperate for change that he’s finally ready to do the tough work required to change. By the accumulating evidence, America hasn’t hit bottom yet and is not ready to change. The government is just an enabler. Not only does the addict have to change (we the people) but the enabler (the government) must change as well. Obama, Pelosi, and the Democrats (if not most Republicans) are the nicest enablers in town, feeding the patient exactly want he or she wants, more money to fuel the addiction. The first step of the AA 12-step recovery program is to admit you have a problem and that you’re powerless to deal with it. Clearly, we are not there yet.