Editorial -- Psychological crisis
Falling off the earth
As this month’s lead article describes, Alaskans rank high on many social destruction indicators. There are many reasons for our leading performance, but in general it is the inevitable result of humanity rushing forward but leaving behind a trail of debris. Crime, rape, suicide, addiction: these are signs of something amiss that is much deeper than the fact itself.
Sometimes it seems as if Alaskans are falling off the earth. But our geography is remarkably stable. If there are more criminals, we can simply build more prisons. If there is more addiction, we can build more treatment centers.
The unlucky ones suffer, but the rest of us do fairly well. The harm falls out of our way. Overseas there may be wars and poverty - and we may even be beneficiaries of this damage - but here in Alaska we are able to carve out a portion of happiness for ourselves.
With our vast apparatus of systems we seem to be able to maintain our prosperity, suppress the underlying problems, and delay the day of reckoning. But there is a price to pay even now for growing centralization, specialization, and bureaucracy. Culture is being sterilized, and this means that we ourselves are becoming sterile. Whether the wounds are self-inflicted or imposed upon us, many of us are suffering in ways that statistics cannot illustrate.
There is a continually diminishing range of meaningful choices available to us. We are complicit in situations that we don’t know and can’t know, because the real choices are made thousands of miles away, and intentionally hidden from us.
According to Patch Adams (the real-life doctor about whom the film starring Robin Williams was based), “Almost all people in America, and in my estimation, the world, are depressed and anxious. There are practically no vital alive people, and we must address this.”
Political solutions do not and cannot address the root of psychic and human problems. Politics can only create of policy, enact laws, and enforce them with the courts, police, and even the military.
Vote with your time, your energy, and your heart. Un-vote in all the ways you are complicit in causing harm, even if this means giving up certain advantages.
Read through this issue of Alaska Humanity News to find examples of how Alaskans are responding to outer problems with inner resources.
The majesty of the wilderness is a constant reminder of what we could achieve. Alaska is a land of freedom, beauty, peace, and opportunity. In some ways the great dreams and hopes of mankind have been fulfilled here—but in external ways. The inner reality is possible. Let’s make it so.