The Perfect Humanoid Symbol, 3

And, both as the grease and as the irony of adding insult to injury, the whole scheme will be topped with the oppressor posing as the authority, the benefactor, occasionally even the victim of the ungrateful “beneficiaries” who dare to bite the “helping” hand, should any victim ever dare to object to sheer suppression. Is there a worse example of betrayal disguised as help?

The presence and the absence of addiction are best compared graphically: the X horizontal axis indicates time, the Y vertical axis indicates the state of the individual, so the line on the graph indicates the state of the individual at any given moment, be it more or less positive or negative. Let’s draw the trends of both an addicted and a non−addicted as they face the very same situations: first, for some time life is normal and unvarying, then some source of stress steps in and life worsens, and then that stress continues since, with life unvarying at a new lower level. The trend of the non−addicted, say, begins at plus ten, remains steady at plus ten as long as life is normal, decreases to plus five when stress steps in, then remains steady at plus five as stress continues, and that’s it. On the other hand, the trend of the addicted, say, begins at plus ten, too, because in the beginning there was no addiction; then when the individual becomes addicted, the trend changes from steady to saw tooth shape: it decreases from plus ten to minus five during abstinence, it increases from minus five to plus five during consumption, then it decreases from plus five to minus five during next abstinence, then it increases from minus five to plus five during next consumption, up and down, up and down, going around in circles in a hopeless loop. And thus far life is still normal; when stress steps in, the saw tooth trend continues, the only change being that the ups and downs decrease from plus five and minus five to plus four and minus six, to plus three and minus seven, and so on, until, say, zero and minus ten; after which, when stress continues, the saw tooth trend continues with those ups and downs of zero and minus ten. And this is but an optimistic example: in actual fact, given a steady level of surrounding conditions, addiction and its ups and downs are quite likely to slowly but inexorably worsen from zero and minus ten to minus one and minus eleven, to minus two and minus twelve… Finally, the addicted often seeks relief by increasing the dose, which only quickens the sinking, like struggling in the quicksand.