Day 331: Affluenza

“The family of a teen critically injured when another teen, Ethan Couch, drove drunk last year has reached a settlement of more than $2 million.

The case made national headlines after a witness claimed Couch was a victim of “affluenza” — the product of wealthy, privileged parents who never set limits for the Texas boy.

For the crimes of driving drunk and causing a crash — which killed four people and critically injured two — Couch received no jail time. He was ordered to go to a lockdown treatment facility and sentenced to 10 years’ probation.

The settlement, reached this month, involves the case of Sergio Molina, who was riding in the back of Couch’s truck the night of the accident. He suffered a brain injury and can no longer speak, or move. He is considered minimally responsive.”

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/07/us/texas-affluenza-teen/

For many of the people who heard about this case, I’m sure they were outraged just as I was. ‘Affluenza’ is not even considered a real mental disorder in the DSM-V  (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), and yet here this young man was eluding any severe consequences due to this argument, which some have pointed out is an indicator of the double standard for wealthy people in our system where they are given preferential and favorable treatment.

But tonight I stopped to consider for a moment – what is affluenza was accepted as a legitimate mental disorder in the DSM-V? Aside from all the money that pharmaceutical companies would be trying to make off of it with some drug which they’ll claim to aid it, there is the possibility that we as a society would come to recognize and understand an important point: the pathology of the elite in this world.

In a world where billions suffer, where animals are slaughtered ruthlessly for our food, where our commercial products are made by slave labor, what does it actually mean to have money, to be wealthy, to have a good standard of living, and within this, to only ever concern oneself with their own self interest while ignoring the plight of others, which in fact made such a comfortable lifestyle possible? Here we are also going to have to re-define our concept of what it means to be ‘elite’ or ‘wealthy in our world because if you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back and a roof over your head, you are actually richer than %75 of the population on earth.

When I began to really see the extent of the suffering in this world, and how the system that creates it is the system off of which I am living and benefiting, I realized that to not take self responsibility to change the system is absolutely unacceptable – that to do nothing would show just how evil, mad and delusional I had become. I have found that taking action does call into question my sanity, because at the prospect of taking action, I found that my biggest road-block was my own self interest: that I had become so obsessed and neurotic over my own bullshit, that taking action was quite a difficult thing to do, and it was no wonder that things are the way they are in this world – those who have any form of power and influence have gone completely mad.

So my concept of what is a sociopath had been completely redefined, and here is where a condition like affluenza could become quite a useful thing if the awareness of it had become as common and widespread as for instance our common knowledge of ADD. We could conventionalize a very important understanding, which is that to be rich and wealthy in a world where billions suffer, where this wealth is the cause of such suffering, and to have absolutely no regard for this fact, is in fact a mental disorder – a severe one because it has extreme consequences for all involved. This is why the world is in the state it is in, because those who really could make a difference, or should I say must make a difference, are not because they are caught up in a delusional reality where there is apparently something more important to be concerned with than the immeasurable suffering of others and ensuring that everyone has the right to a dignified life.

So, if you find yourself in a position of privilege but find yourself unwilling to do anything to change the world to a place that is best for all life, understand that you have a case of affluenza! If you find others who are living a life of privilege but who remain oblivious to the plight of others and what is really going on in this world, realize that they have a severe case of affluenza! If you see yourself as someone who wants to make a difference but finds it difficult to do so because you are caught up in your own self interest, know that you have a mild case of affluenza!

Let’s put this word to good use, just like other great terms we have coined in the new millennium through our increasing global awareness through the internet, like ‘first world problems’ – let’s highjack this word that has been coined in defense of the abuse of the elite to justify corruption, and rather start using it on a regular basis to expose it.