Essay on Want-Creation Fuels Americans Addictiveness by Slater

Philip Slater argues in his essay “Want-Creation Fuels Americans’ Addictiveness” that the dependency many Americans have on drugs is the result of the premium that American society puts on success. This success comes with costs attached, but these costs are brushed aside, often with the help of medicating drugs (Slater 392). The addictive personality of Americans extends beyond drugs, too, to addictions of all types. Slater argues that because we are told every day that were ignorant, misguided, inadequate, incompetent and undesirable we can only escape this condition if we indulge, an act that will make us feel better (395). Slater’s point is not that we are inadequate or any of those negative attributes, but that we are meant to feel that way if we do not achieve to a certain level. Yet, the level to which Americans achieve is actually very high.

The quick fix mentality is ascribed by Slater to be one of the most important causes of drug abuse (392). Our society is harsh, he describes, but we prefer quicker action rather than solutions that evolve over the long term (Slater 392). As a result, drugs become an attractive means of medicating ourselves in response to the harshness of our society (Slater 393). Too many people in today’s society want to mask their problems with drugs or alcohol instead of dealing with the problems face to face.

I would have to strongly agree with Slaters point of view in this essay. Americans do tend to have addictive personalities as a whole. While all you need is food, shelter, and water to survive everyone has their own wants and needs that they feel they could not live without. For example nowadays I believe that most people would not be able to live without the internet. We have all become so dependent on the internet for almost all sources of information that if something were to happen and there was no internet anymore then people would feel as though we had gone back to the dark ages and start struggling to

Cited: Slater, Phillip. “Want-Creation Fuels Americans’ Addictiveness.” One World, Many Cultures. 8th ed. Eds. Stuart Hirschberg and Terry Hirschberg. New York: Pearson Longman, 2010. 391-395. Print.