Opiates,

 

Here are a couple of comments on the paper (2023) “Opiates of the masses? Deaths of despair and the decline of American religion.” The paper is sixty-three pages long! This is way too long. I don’t see why they can’t make their point in just three pages? It must be incompetence and exaggeration, which are unacceptable, by any scientific standard. However, I am going to read it, as the title caught my attention. 

 

We are, of course, dealing here with correlational research. In other words, among a multitude of other co-occurring variables, deaths of middle-aged, white Americans seem to coincide with the statistic, that such folk no longer see any reason for going to church and believing in a higher power. Yet, climate change also co-occurs with the decline in religion, as well as changing demographics or the rise of the LGBTQ movement, to name a few. In causational research, on the other hand, one variable causes a change in another variable, which means, there is a cause-and-effect relationship. The covariation of variables in correlational research merely shows that when one variable changes, so does the other. Having said that, anyone with an inkling of scientific knowledge knows, that a correlation doesn’t imply causation, but causation always implies correlation.

 

Surely, I am writing this just to make my point, which, as you will soon begin to see, brings another important, but basically completely ignored factor to the table: how people actually talk. Stated differently, the title of this  pompous paper could have been “Opiates of the masses? Deaths of despair and the decline of American interest in how we talk.” If you have any intelligence, you already know where I am going. I have made my point already. Obviously, nobody wants to address this morbid issue, but I do: people are dying because of our usual, insensitive way of talking. Indeed, they have been dying, due to this lethal variable, for a long time and they are dying at ever increasingly higher rates, because this causal relationship was never fully acknowledged.  

 

I don’t care if you believe me or not. I am not going to try to prove, to some academic truth-commission, that our commonly accepted, forceful, tiring way of talking, is almost permanently Disembodied Language (DL) and causes all of our society’s ailments. Yes, all of them! Moreover, I know that Embodied Language (EL), which is the only solution to these problems, can only be acquired through experience. This means, ongoing EL has nothing whatsoever to do with our well-established, but nonetheless catastrophic theories about teaching and learning, which, inevitably, were, of course, derived from our participation in dumb, dissociative DL.

 

Certainly, it is a very sad fact, that many less-educated, middle-aged, white American men – in more than one way, I should say – are dying of despair, as they no longer experience the social cohesion, which was once provided for them by going to church. However, it is inevitable that mature American individualism goes hand in hand with a steady decline in the childish and unscientific belief in the existence of a higher power. Moreover, conversation about what our society should be like, has more to do with how we talk than with whether we are trying to implement right- or left-wing policies. In both cases, we are engaging in DL, as we are pushing an already existing narrative. In fact, we are not communicating, as we only pretend we talk and listen. DL causes, besides despair and death, also war, crime, mental health issues, divorce, homelessness, unhealthy life-styles and an overall sense of meaninglessness, but we have yet to begin to talk about how talk, as we are unable to address DL with DL. The only way in which we can productively address our DL is with our EL.

 

There is another issue, which has remained beyond our ability to comprehend. Whether we know it or not, each of us is enlightened, but we don’t act on this beautiful fact, since we don’t embody our way of talking, that is, we mainly engage in idiotic DL. Only our ongoing EL can reveal our LE. Once we find out about our LE, we realize, we create our own reality and no professional, religious, scientific, academic, cultural, national, sport or amusement group-affiliation, can replace the way in which we, individually, deal with our language. Only during ongoing EL are we beginning to become aware of how we create and live in our own reality, by the way in which we handle our own language. Once we have ongoing EL instead of DL, we can admit that with DL, we let others determine our reality. Therefore, only with EL, will we be able to take our lives into our own hands and achieve our freedom. Although we will eventually be able to have joyful EL with others, it will be, initially, primarily, us talking out loud alone with ourselves and listening to the sound of our own voice while we speak, so that can become guided by the sound of our own wellbeing, into saying what we want to say and can say. 

 

I want to end my comment with this funny lament. It is funny because I have to explain it to you. Usually, if a joke requires explanation, it isn't funny, but not in this case. Although it is funny, it is no joke that our common way of talking remains unaddressed, as long as we fear to listen to ourselves. Yes, as long as we do not listen to ourselves while we speak, we, inadvertently, habitually, and unconsciously engage in DL. Yet, everything we observe in every society around the world, is caused by how people talk with each other. It is not a matter of whether we accept this or not, as we all are, whether we are aware of it or not, experiencing the many negative consequences of this hard fact. The facts don’t go away, although DL, makes us believe that they do. Religiosity has also historically always obscured the facts, which now become painfully visible and audible, now that we  no longer believe in God as much as we used to and are left to our own views and verbal concepts about reality. As we step out of our self-imposed beliefs, our DL stops and our EL begins. We don’t need religion, but we need this authentic way of talking more than ever before.