By Paul Weiser
Two observations from life.
Years ago I worked in an office which periodically, from institutional charity, took men from jail out- placement as custodians. All races were represented but their trajectory was invariant: first day, old but clean clothes, a big smile and a new feather duster. In the following weeks fallen feathers graced our offices. Then the smile dimmed, small thefts would be noted, the new custodian began coming in late or irregularly... finally, the candy fund box was found empty and they never returned.
More recently I worked in an office which periodically hired women of a certain description - loud, foul- mouthed, young and heavyset. Race? Well, you get the picture. The first symptom that a new cohort had arrived was that the sugar canister dropped several cups a day (pure cane sugar - any idea how many calories that is? Though it explains the gold teeth...) The next symptom was that the silverware drawer was emptied of spoons and forks, indicating this cohort, too, had reached the end of its grace period and, unable or unwilling to follow instructions, arrive promptly, or earn money on commission (that is, work at all) had departed... with a rattle to their handbags and a waddle in their step. And the sugar level stopped sinking.
Some people (and some offices) never learn. Others learn the wrong lesson: that they can con their parole and workfare officers to scrape along without actually mending their larcenous and self-indulgent ways.
My observation: in the absence of ordinary self-control anything - gambling, sex, sneak-thievery, beating your spouse, cocaine or heroin, meth or choking down handfuls of sugar - can be an addiction. For an "addiction" is nothing less nor more than an excuse to evade the human duty of self-control: the forms it may take follow fashion, not chemistry.
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