Response to critique of our work - Addiction vs Agency
Addiction Economy Thought for Today - is our Addiction Economy concept & our strapline ‘It’s not you it’s them empowering or disempowering?
Here is our response to US blogger Michael Woudenberg who proposes that ultimately addiction is a personal choice.
We argue it is both disempowering and empowering, but that ultimately leads to the most empowering & effective solutions of all.
https://lnkd.in/ed9TfW-E
In summary:
The Economic Model of Addiction shows 4 strategies companies use:
* Addictive product design
* Predatory marketing
* Misinformation
* Undermining political action
THE DISEMPOWERING PART - these strategies really work
Yes, as he says, ‘no-one is forcing us’ to use these products, but the orchestration of our entire environment to make these products seem like something we want, even need, fundamentally takes away our agency, freedom of action and some argue, our freedom of thought.
THE EMPOWERING PART - knowledge gives us agency
Our view is that it although it can be upsetting, even a bit embarrassing, to realise how easily we can be manipulated, it can also be empowering to see more clearly just how and why it happens and that we are not as weak, or lacking in will power as we are often made to feel. Millions, in fact billions of ‘normal’ people are addicted to these products for very good reasons of economics and power.
Michael's solution is one of individual empowerment and personal choice. “It doesn’t matter what’s being sold, who’s trying to sell it, what sort of societal pressures exist, nor how addicting something can be. We can, and we have ample evidence that it works, say “No, not me.” Each step into addiction was a choice and each step back out is also a choice.” Yes and no.
Perhaps surprisingly this ‘addiction is a choice’ approach is the one companies like alot, and spend lots of time & money promoting - as Grant Ennis shows in his book Dark PR, Rebecca Cassidy in Vicious Games Capitalism and Gambling and Chris Van Tulleken in Ultra Processed People; as do the WHO and Lancet and others in their studies on the Commercial Determinants of Health.
Why? Because it puts all the onus back on us, and deflects attention from the best long term solution which is to change the environment which allows addictive products to flourish and undermines our ability to control our actions in the first place.
THE MOST EMPOWERING PART OF ALL - changing the environment
What has worked is regulation. There is a growing weight of evidence which shows that the best way to address addiction is to change the environment which allows it to flourish. Our model defines the Economic drivers of addiction which are driven in turn by the relentless focus on short term financial returns of neo-liberal capitalism (see below).
Here is the full article:
https://bit.ly/3TmLkvv
Here is our Economic Model of Addiction and why it matters:
https://bit.ly/3x5yTgo
https://www.polymathicbeing.com/p/agency-vs-addiction