On a final note:
-Sociology, has a lot to offer the subjects of collective behavior, movements, etc.
-Fossil fuel usage seems to be a choice, its not the only way/means to live a fullfilling life. Which astounds me, when i continue to see the strength of the connection people have equating things with happiness ie quality of life. Things of which never could be present without fossil fuels–since most every-thing is a product of an industrial system.

Addiction is an excellent metaphor if applied selectively with an understanding of what we are faced with as a society and as individuals as well as how addiction plays out in real life. Remember that not everyone recovers, in fact many addicts die fighting (or in apathy). Since I can see that as a possibility for our culture, I think we should work strongly in the opposite direction.

In the case of 1) people seem genuinely unable to accept that cheap energy (oil) is limited and due to run out soon, hence cornupocian arguments
2) We know the damage that our unfettered use of cheap energy is wreaking on the planet and once again people seem blindly unmoved by the long term damage being caused
3) the prospect of shortage already seems to move government to extreme action as evidence in Iraq.

Surely all three of these reactions could be seem as mentally aberrant behaviour induced by addiction. Incidentally the level of that addiction may be measurable using price elasticity of demand say

Fantastic web site

http://www.divisiononaddictions.org/html/whatisaddiction.htm

Also, IMO, “society” does not force us to burn up absurd amounts of fossil fuels. When we deny our individual choices, we give up responsibility, and then you have the situation we have today.

Other words close to addiction are dependency and abuse – worth exploring as well.

If you think of work abuse, or workaholics, its a situation where the unfortunate person gets their kicks increasingly from work, and from nothing else. The test for workaholics includes the question “do you read work related stuff at the dnner table, in bed, etc?”
The thing is ABUSE where it affects other aspects fo your life negatively. Obviously just because we go to work we are not addicted.

Many say we are addicted to short term hits of happiness – we cannot be still and content.

You could certainly say that we abuse oil in this context because, like the workaholic, it is increasingly through oil fueled activities we get our kicks.

In fact I’ll ask you readers the same question. Can you think of something you really enjoy doing that does not require oil?

Of the kicks and hits of happiness you get for yourself, what percentage are energy-intensive?

Studies of addicts show that when they are shown someone taking “the drug” their frontal brain lobes are stimulated as if they were experiencing the buzz. So addicted has a brain element, like anticipation. When given drugs to suppress this frontal lobe activity alcoholics were miraculously cured. AND they lost weight as they became less “eating” addicted.

The cure for oil addiction would be the one, through drugs or therapy, that stopped this anticipatory mechanism.
so when you look at a cool car …. nothing.
The thought of an executive job in industry ..nothing ..thought of holiday abroad… etc.

This anticipatoy mehanism I believe is inbuilt to help humans survive in many situation. Like digging the garden, growing food, building eco-houses, recycling etc would become “anticipatory good”.

I would love to run therapy groups on that!

The withdrawal from our addiction will be as difficult and painful as that of a heroin addict, but the level of understanding I got from a small barber shop amazed me. The people can and do understand the issues, and perhaps can be convinced to get out of their cars; but I doubt it, I am pessemistic about our ability to shrug off our car culture.

I rode my pushbike to work today, and I saw precisely zero others doing the same.

The medical model of addiction (as opposed to the behavioral one) is a product of one thing: DRGs, the medical billing codes that determine who gets paid and for what in the medical-industrial complex. Until DRGs, addiction was recognized as a behavioral issue that required behavioral change. When clever medical folks figured out that they could BILL for this at their rates–rather than at the low rates typically given for behavioral change folks–suddenly we had DRGs and then we had a whole new model of addiction.

If we’re addicted to oil it’s a strange addiction because it’s the first one where we will feel better throughout the withdrawal and substitution process.

If anything, I would guess that it’s the corporations who are _addicted_ to keeping us _dependent_ on cheap fuel.

If a society has embraced a particular technology, I don’t think “addiction” is at all the right way of expressing it. Even if the technology proves to be a bad idea, because it isn’t sustainable. If a village cuts more trees than they plant for firewood, are they addicted to wood or to fire? Are they addicted to staying warm? No, they are just short-sighted. That may be a common feature with addicts, but there is one big difference: addicts can always live without their addiction, but technologies may be necessary for life to certain people, even if that technology is unsustainable in the long term.

It isn’t a matter of giving up oil, and after a while of gritting our teeth, we’ll be fine. It’s a matter of finding a substitute to technologies that are right now essential to our life, because those technologies can’t keep us going any longer. In other words, we aren’t talking about unpleasantness. We are talking about life and death.

Using Rob’s analogy, the addicted are being force-fed huge doses of intoxicating substances, and leaving the grog-house is against domestic public policy.