I’ve always been amazed to see how social behaviors are visible not only in the real economy (Behavioral Economics) but in the economic system itself. I’m at a point where I see many everyday, real-life situations, and it’s almost inevitable not to link them with how the economic system operates. This has not been the exception with addictions.

Addiction is a very complex condition. People with addictions are capable of giving up everything. Health, beauty, relationships, wealth, and even their lives. But what is it that makes addictions so powerful?

The psychiatrist R. D. Laing once said, "There are three things human beings are afraid of: death, other people, and their own minds." And therefore we live pursuing oblivion, forgetting, peace, control, or calmness, even if it’s only for a few minutes.

And so many times people will do things to their own detriment just to get very short-term relief. Truth is that we all have some type of addiction on a smaller or greater scale. And it’s true that addiction is initially related to drugs, but it could be to food, the internet, porn, shopping, TV shows, music, partying, and of course, our phones.

“It’s a rough old world, and sometimes you need something to blank it out. And it probably ain’t worth the ride (…) it’s one way to run away.” This is how Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones guitarist, sees his long-overcomed addiction to heroin.

Why don't many people who try drugs or any other potentially addictive behavior don't get addicted, but others do? In other words, why are some people more vulnerable than others to being addicted?

Dr. Gabor Maté affirms that this has to do with neurological circuits that don’t develop in a healthy manner during a certain episode of someone’s life, causing trauma. This has a big emphasis on childhood and early life stages. He argues that each person has a unique form of coping or filling the emptiness that the trauma caused but always goes back to what we lack or didn't get when we were very small, with big emphasis on early life stages.

We often judge, question or criticize addicts for their behaviors without empathizing and asking what caused them to be in that position. Similar to the Rat Park experiment from the ’70s we now understand that the problem is not the detrimental behavior that needs to be attacked, but rather the cause of that behavior and the interpretation we give to that causation, that we need to really understand.

If you’re not convinced yet, take a look at what we’re doing to our only home, Planet Earth, to its forests, oceans, and atmosphere. We are all (to a greater or smaller degree) in consensus that we must take care of our planet. And even though there’s a narrative from governments and big corporations to "go green" and be environmentally friendly with their shiny ESG labels, the real reason they do it is just to make more and more profits, even if it’s not really beneficial for the planet and promotes a misleading interpretation.

What’s the real addiction that’s causing such destructive actions? What are the incentives that caused such addiction in the first place?

Buddhists describe hungry ghosts as creatures with large empty and insatiable bellies. They can never have enough, and neither can they fill the void inside. Also similar to No-Face from Spirited Away, who is exposed to the corruptive thoughts, greed and negative traits of those he has swallowed, we can see that these ghosts also exist in our culture and society.

The hungry ghosts of our society are benefiting from the current system and how it works. And the more power they get, the more they’ll crave it.

How did we end up here? What’s broken with the system we live and in, the same which once knew how to serve us but today seems to suffocate us more and more?

Many of us would say almost instinctively (including myself) that the cause of the problem is the money, and that the problem is money. I believe this is not true.

As Gabor Maté argues, a person will likely say that the problem is with the drug the addict is taking, and very often will judge addicts for doing drugs. At the same time, that same person is buying the latest shirt from the trending clothing brand, so it gets the approval of their friends, even knowing but without even bothering that that shirt was made by exploited kids in the Middle East.

This is just an example, but it can be extrapolated to thousands of different cases. It’s not to blame it on ourselves, but it is to understand the hypocrisy of the system we’re part of. A system where appearances, status and power are belief systems introduced like viruses in our minds, under which we make decisions on a daily basis without knowing that they are totally fabricated, subjective and intangible beliefs.

As Farrah Gray said: "Money doesn’t change who you are; it magnifies who you really are."

So money is not the real problem, is just a tool. The problem is that money is under the status and power game, in an economy that is not capitalism anymore, but rather a deformation of free markets into monopolies, oligopolies, oligarchies and plutocracies of a few corporations and hedge funds that are playing in a "winner takes all" model. If these dynamics persist, they tend to get bigger and bigger over time being detrimental in every aspect we can think of.

I tend to agree with the view of Jason Lowery when he talks about the problem with abstract power hierarchies. Positions of power and influence that once served the stability and growth of a system, are now threats to the human rights and freedom principles of all of us. With this landscape in sight, we might have some dark years ahead of us.

So... are we doomed to the hyperinflation of abstract power hierarchies at the expense of our freedoms?

I believe that we are on the verge of a point of inflection in human history. As Ray Dalio points out in his great book "Dealing With the Changing World Order", every major cycle in human history goes through a series of events. As the image shows, we are very close to the end of the current cycle.

Many outdated costumes, ideologies and belief systems are crumbling, and this is the time to stand up and rebuild.

We have two options: either we submit to the addiction to the power of the leaders of the current system (and perhaps the leaders of the next cycle), or we make ourselves heard by a new cycle with the values, the ideas and the world that we all we want.

So the question I would like to ask you is:

Will you sit comfortably and see how they set you the new game rules, or will you stand up and build the world we want all together?

Thank you for reading. I write with the goal of connecting timeless concepts and ideas to challenge the status quo and bring us together.

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Cheers!! I see you at the next one. ✌🏻