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CounterPunch
October
19, 2002
George W. and
Alcoholism
by MICHAEL O'McCARTHY
My name is Michael O and I am a recovered alcoholic.
I am also a progressive political activist. The two are not always
compatible. It is a principle of personal recovery from the disease
of alcoholism that I will cease fighting anybody or anything
in order that I maintain the necessary level of spiritual serenity
that keeps me from creating resentments and justifiable anger.
Those two emotional states will lead me to drink. They are, as
our experience has taught, the two most common emotional causes
of relapses.
When I indulge in either of those two
emotional states of mind, I am not rational. My perception is
blurred by my own self-righteousness, which is driven by self-centered
fear. That is not the right state of mind to live everyday life.
Certainly not one by which to make decisions that affect all
humankind. That is why I am writing.
The two recent, brilliantly insightful
and brave pieces on George W. Bush's relationship to alcohol,
Dry Drunk by Alan Bisbort in American Politics Journal (1) and
Addiction, Brain Damage and the President,
"Dry Drunk" Syndrome and George W. Bush by Katherine
van Wormer in Counterpunch (2) are the most incisive, analytical
explanations of his irrational behavior yet in print. They also
provide a basis upon which we must argue for a debate on his
mental competence to govern. An ambiguous proviso: Those of us
in recovery hold that only an alcoholic can diagnose him/herself.
It is too complex a disease to do otherwise, being three fold
in nature as we see it. That is physical, mental and spiritual.
Further, far too often, the alcoholic
has been 'diagnosed' by others both pedestrian and professional
as everything from an immoral scumbag to a person without backbone
to a clinical case of paranoid schizophrenic. (Parenthetically,
the lack of "backbone" is George W's favorite rant
at the UN.)
However I believe that it essential to
understand the emotional, mental and spiritual state of the unrecovered
and practicing alcoholic in order to understand the 'dry drunk.'
Common traits of the alcoholic are a
concurrent sense of superiority along with an inferiority complex.
A sense of never fitting in. Feeling irritable and discontent,
or not comfortable in one's own skin. A childish selfishness
that is never satisfied by people, places or things. An innate
fear that someone is always trying to take away what the alcoholic
has, or will deprive them of what they think is their due.
Often, anger, resentment and rage are
the only 'true' emotions that the alcoholic exhibits. At the
same time, because of these emotional state's relationship to
the chemistry of the central nervous system, they alone can 'fuel'
the alcoholic's behavior. The alcoholic functions on 'self-will'
or 'self-will run riot.' The alcoholic's favorite phrase is:
'my way or the highway.'
Then along comes alcohol. In the beginning
its use brings a false sense of 'well being.' The alcoholic only
feels 'normal' when under the abnormal influence of a mind-altering
chemical.
However, it must be noted that with some
alcoholics, the disease function entirely the opposite: they
alcoholic seems like a placid, normal person until that first
drink and then the Dr. Jeckyll/Mr. Hyde syndrome takes place
and they become angry violent people. In other words, as indicated
by the American Medical Association, and now by countless clinical
studies of behavior, physiology and mental health, the practicing
and unrecovered alcoholic is a very sick person.
Often, at various times in the alcoholic's
life, as the disease takes more toll, the alcohol no longer works
or soothes the continually irritated state of the alcoholic.
Then and/or when, the behaviors caused by the toxic allergic
effects of the alcohol produce periods of out of control insanity
the alcoholic often becomes both suicidal and homicidal.
At this point only total abstinence and
a 'psychic' change in personality, as Jung described it, seems
to save the alcoholic. Most often this 'psychic' change is spiritual
in nature, followed by a life altered course based on spiritual
principles that are practiced one day at a time by the recovering/recovered
alcoholic. These are most often found in a continued lifetime
utilizing Twelve Step recovery programs.
Where this does not take place, that
is when the alcoholic drinks again, the alcoholic can only become
worse. Or, when the alcoholic only abstains but does not experience
the 'psychic' change and alter life behaviors based on spiritual
principles, the alcoholic, as described in the afore mentioned
articles, becomes very much the same person as when drinking.
Only the fuel becomes self-will and self-centered fear and an
obsession to control everything and everybody.
In the average alcoholic this simply
means that no one but masochists and enablers wish to befriend
him/her. He/she is a miserable, unrelenting pain in the ass and/or
a tyrant.
Another core mental characteristic of
both the practicing alcoholic and the dry drunk is denial. Alcoholism
is the only disease that continually tells the victim that he/she
does not have it while it is trying to kill him/her. For the
dry drunk to maintain a rational appearance requires that he/she
proclaim that they are not alcoholic. Or as Bush said, he was
not "clinically alcoholic."
Katherine van Wormer states in her Counterpunch
article that "dry drunk" traits consist of: Exaggerated
self-importance and pomposity. Grandiose behavior. A rigid, judgmental
outlook. Impatience. Childish behavior. Irresponsible behavior.
Irrational rationalization. Projection. Overreaction.
All of these mirror the character of
the practicing or unrecovered alcoholic.
These behaviors are recognized as commonplace
by all familiar with alcoholics and the disease of alcoholism.
They are tolerable only to those who have a vested interest in
seeing that those behaviors continue, either out of a personal
need for attachment and dependency, or, because those behaviors
enable others to manipulate the results to their own ends. In
the domestic environment it creates co-dependents. In the political
environment the enablers are the political minions or manipulators
of the ill alcoholic.
In persons with external power/control
over their domain, such as police and military officers over
their jurisdictions and chain of command, business and corporate
bosses over their employees and the direction of the company,
husbands and wives over each other and their children, these
people become dangerous to the well being of those around them.
To a state ruler, depending upon the
weaponry at command, they become dangerous to an entire universe.
Michael O'McCarthy is a poet, writer and political organizer. He
can be reached at: Opolitique@aol.com
Yesterday's Features
Lee Sustar
Bush and
Bosses Wage War on Workers
William Hughes
Israel
Takes the Hill:
The Lantos / Netanyahu Two-step
Linda Heard
Turkey
Resigned to No Win Situation
Chris Floyd
The Base
Alexander Cockburn
Starring Jimmy Carter, in War and Peace
Edward Lazarus
The Problem with Posner
Mark Weisbrot
Venezuelan Democracy Under Siege
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- How to Change the Subject: Corporate Scandal and Pension
Reform as Weapons Against Warmongering;
- Padilla's Predecessor: Court Ruling Cites 1904 War
Against Mining Union;
- Adios Hitchens: the Dorian Gray of Our Time;
- Object of Suspicion: How the FBI Watched Janis Ian
From Birth;
- First Carter, Then Clinton,
Now Sen. John Edwards:
Another "New South" Slimeball;
- Corporate Crooks: Nature or Nurture?
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October 14,
2002
Harry Browne
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Don Atapattu
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