Measuring Social Pathology

There are all sorts of ways to measure social pathology. Here at meaning in history we tend to measure social pathology in terms of the prevalence of deviant anti-human ideologies. On the other hand, such ideologies have an impact on day to day life in America, as we see all around us--in our families, our local communities, our nation.

CNN offers today a very graphic measure of social pathology. Of course, they blame it on "the pandemic," and no doubt the attempted social lockdown of most of the country played a major role. However, the causes undoubtedly run deeper:

Drug overdose deaths in 2020 hit highest number ever recorded, CDC data shows

(CNN) Drug overdose deaths rose by close to 30% in the United States in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.

More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020, according to provisional data released by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. That's a 29.4% increase from the 72,151 deaths projected for 2019.

"Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) and psychostimulants such as methamphetamine also increased in 2020 compared to 2019. Cocaine deaths also increased in 2020, as did deaths from natural and semi-synthetic opioids (such as prescription pain medication)," the NCHS said in a statement.

"This is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, and the largest increase since at least 1999," Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement.

"These data are chilling. The COVID-19 pandemic created a devastating collision of health crises in America," added Volkow.

As in recent years, inappropriate use of opioids was behind most of the deaths. The NCHS reported that overdose deaths from opioids rose from 50,963 in 2019 to 69,710 in 2020.

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While this pathology is certainly not confined to our major cities, one presumes that this plays pretty directly into the stunning rise in murders and shootings generally, which are overwhelmingly gang--and therefore drug--related.

Americans will have lots to think about come 2022: Pathological ideologies in our schools and public life, pathological inflation, pathological attacks on election integrity, pathological levels of crime and drug use. 

Will America step back from societal suicide?

The Disturbing Cult Of Greta Thunberg

Via Zerohedge. I have nothing much to add--not even about her parents--except that this cult does appear to be an indicator of societal suicide. This cult speaks more than volumes of analysis could about the utter degradation we're being led into. And of course what this episode should remind anyone with a sense for history of is the Left's long use of children for propaganda purposes. Not science--although the Left always claims "settled science" is on their side: propaganda. And our so-called journalists play right into it.


The Disturbing Cult Of Greta Thunberg


by Rob Slane via TheBlogMire.com,

The Cult of Greta Thunberg is an extremely disturbing one, and one which marks a new low in the drain-circling that Western civilisation seems bent on. Even if I happened to believe that the naturally occurring gas that each of us breathes out many thousands of times per day, and which plants use for photosynthesis, is going to end up being the death of us, I would still be profoundly disturbed by the use of this girl - who is very clearly mentally unstable - as the poster-child for the agenda.

This video of her speaking at the UN is a case in point, as is her statement to the Davos crowd earlier this year, in which she decided to spread her own brand of hopeless misery to all:

“Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope. But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.”

Causes which are backed up by incontrovertible facts do not need the aid of slightly unnerving and emotive teenage girls to lead the charge. On the contrary, slightly unnerving and emotive teenage girls might be thought by a rational society to be somewhat of a hindrance to the facts, since they are likely to detract from them and move the issues from the realm of reason and rational discourse to emotion and feelings.

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It is, however, worth remembering that it wasn’t from the camp of the so-called “Deniers” of facts and reason that the decision was taken to use an emotionally disturbed child to act as a global spokesperson and to make emotional appeals to the world. Rather, it was from those who claim to have the facts, the proof and the settled science. Why? If the science really is settled, and the facts really are incontrovertible, why the need to use a vulnerable girl to push the agenda, as has clearly happened?