Anomie: An Intriguing Topic for Quacks Who Care

Taken from an imaginary journal dated Apr. 8, 1983

Sophocles once wrote (in cuneiform?) that "despair often breeds disease."

A disease of despair refers to one of three classes of behavior-related medical conditions arising in population sectors where individuals view their long-term social and economic prospects as bleak and thus experience despair. Those who see their futures ending in loneliness or poverty, for example, often die by drug overdose, suicide, or alcoholic liver disease. But why would people be prone to such negativity?

To answer this query, noted father of Sociology Emile “Chuckles” Durkheim began studying Catholics and Protestants in his native Alsace-Lorraine because, hey, that is what you do when you notice this latter group, par example, has a significantly higher rate of suicide than the former.

Le Cerveau was able to show that, coinkydink, Protestants did not enjoy the same tightly-knit social network that Catholics did. Catholics gossiped, complained, shouted at, got drunk, threw up, broke bread, wine glasses, and marriage vows, etc. together. Which meant that their actions were always guided by their membership in the Catholic community first, and which also meant that on the negligible chance that something might go wrong in their lives, they always had their friends in that community to support them. Whereas Protestants had a ticking clock, an inability to understand the concept of joke, and an extremely distasteful reflection in the mirror to support them.                                                                  

Logically, Durkheim tackled the idea of social networks themselves next, maybe. In the book he titled Suicide (1897), he began throwing the word Anomie about, thereby proving it existed. Directly translated from the Greek, the term means without law, or lawlessness, which we find to be a strange expression for problems one has with social networks...until we understand pourquoi it was chosen.                                                                    

Anomie the social condition is defined by an uprooting or breakdown of moral values, standards, or guidance for people to follow. Social bonds between individuals and community break down, wither, crumble, crack and falter, disintegrate. Here we must pause and wonder what, exactly, might cause such a thing to occur. Thoughts?

If a person feels marginalized or alienated, they may develop difficulties performing tasks and actions deemed normal by the larger community, like finding a job, having a healthy relationship with friends and partners, flossing, not having a washing machine that keeps the neighbors awake at night, not wearing bell bottoms, washing oneself and one's mouth, not distracting anyone by flashing one's boobs or junk, and driving in the same direction as everyone else. For example.                                                                 

Peculiarly, the Lorrain preferred not to describe anomie as normlessness, but rather derangement in the sense of being unable to think or act in a controlled way, or as an insatiable will. He spoke of the malady of the infinite, saying that desire sans limit was unfulfillable, and would only become more intense. The individual burns inside with something unquenchable. Anomie arose from a mismatch between personal standards and wider social standards, or the lack of social ethics which produced moral deregulation and an absence of legitimate aspirations. It's every man for himself.  

Curious here how this new science already overlaps with philosophy! And capitalists’ wet dreams.                  

If Durkheim thought things were bad in the late 19th century, then the 20th would prove his naiveté. After two world wars it became a real chore to remain faithful to the codes and norms of society-at-large, since the latter was responsible for a never-before-seen POP [Proofs-of-Power/dead people] count.

Accordingly, as the outside world grew in size and scope, became increasingly difficult to deal with, and the ability to be heard and seen all but disappeared for poor, weak, mortal humans, a need for escape from harsh daily realities rose heavenwards on a foundation of pain, frustration and fear. 

Luckily, help was on the way in the form of television. The idea caught on slowly: in 1948 only 1% of Americans had a boob tube, but by 1955 that number had grown to 15%.

From around the time Suicide was published, people had began using the term social capital. This idea bespoke of a shared set of values or resources allowing individuals to work in groups to achieve common goals. Also, social capital reflects, or, tee-hee, reflected the ability to obtain resources, favors, emotional support, or information from personal connections. The more pals one has, the more capital one has to see one through lean times. With the rise of television, the decline of individual social capital began. People relied more on TV for support, despite this appliance being, in fact, merely a box with a cathode ray tube (CRT) and flickering blueish lights.                                                                                                                                                                                                 The current rise of microprocessors and microcomputers makes one wonder if these contraptions aren't designed to be used as the television clearly was and is–as an obviously faulty method of acquiring the support one needs and does not receive. Of acquiring the feeling, however illusory, of being in touch.

One can only surmise that if ever it became possible to link all the databases of every computer–which shouldn't be too difficult, all things considered–and to enable individuals to contact and communicate with other users, then the ensuing electrical network might entangle the world like a web from which escape would be difficult, as every step into this net distances the computerer from real-life communities and therefore necessitates further excursions into electrical ones.                                                                   

At best, such devices reinforce existing connections without promoting new ones. At worst, they slowly melt away the glue attaching people to their families, communities, and roots. Users are left inside a vacuum, a void if you will, with only the ticking clock and a decomposing image in the mirror, a crumbling self-image inside an increasingly bored, alienated, apathetic mind. One needs only to research the personal histories of various hate-motivated and/or fame-seeking mass shooters, suicide victims, and serial killers to see what the result of these developments might be. 

Thankfully, if things get too bad, there’s always drugs legal and illicit to keep the armies and squadrons and hordes and armadas of demons out of one’s mind long enough for a cat nap or, like, a work.

All of which helps to explain why sensitive, young, and female persons more in touch with emotions might be prone to thinking stinkingly. According to experts who may or may not have been born yet, there are four different types of despair:

1.) Cognitive despair, which describes defeated, guilty, hopeless, and pessimistic thoughts. This despair form may lead to people viewing others' actions as hostile, and to discount long-term outcomes and their worth.                                      2.) Emotional despair reflects feelings of sadness, irritability, loneliness and apathy, any or all of which can help impede the construction of healthy, towering relationships.                                                                                                              3.) Behavioral despair cannot disguise risky, reckless, self-destructive acts that also evince a disregard of rosy, smiley-faced futures, like self-harm (cutting oneself, or listening to The Carpenters would fall under this category, for example), reckless driving, drug and alcohol use and abuse, risky sexual practices, like "petting" (no, not that one) and many more.                                            4.) Dysfunctional or irregular performance of the body's stress reactive system and/or hormonal wonkiness reflects Biological despair, which, coincidentally, shows how our emotional states can physically affect the body.

Despairing over time increases the chances of riding with one or more of these merry horsemen, and can produce suicidal thoughts or drug and alcohol abuse. As Anne Case, who is 20 now, and Angus Deaton (33) showed in their enlightening paper titled: Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism in 2020 :

Suicide happens when society fails to provide some of its members with the framework within which they can live dignified and meaningful lives.

In this context, we may say that individuals in suicidal situations are detrimentally free, that their lack of connection and support leads them into desire without restraint, to the point where they are ready to (d)evolve into beings capable of committing the singular most destructive and hopeless act: suicide.                                                                                                                                                         

“For if society lacks the unity that derives from the fact that the relationships between its parts are exactly regulated, that unity resulting from the harmonious articulation of its various functions assured by effective discipline and if, in addition, society lacks the unity based upon the commitment of men's wills to a common objective, then it is no more than a pile of sand that the least jolt or the slightest puff will suffice to scatter.” –Moral Education (1925)

Kinda worth thinking about, that the pillars holding up our artificial worlds are, thanks to divisiveness, distraction, apathy, and warped priorities, in danger of collapsing. If our society is a Tower and its supports were wonky, how long would you stay inside and expect it to remain standing?

Yet, if you choose to exit it, what else is there?