Drapetomania was a supposed mental illness described by American physician Samuel A. Cartwright in 1851 that caused black slaves to flee captivity.[1] Today, drapetomania is considered an example of pseudoscience,[2] and part of the edifice of scientific racism.[3] The term derives from the Greek δραπετης (drapetes, “a runaway [slave]“) + μανια (mania, “madness, frenzy”). -Wikipedia
Oh, but such things could never happen in our modern society, right? We would never diagnose as a disease the desire for freedom, or even intelligence, or creativity… Or would we?
The essential feature of Oppositional Defiant Disorder is a recurrent pattern of negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and hostile behavior toward authority figures that persists for at least 6 months and is characterized by the frequent occurrence of at least four of the following behaviors: losing temper, arguing with adults, actively defying or refusing to comply with the requests or rules of adults, deliberately doing things that will annoy other people, blaming others for his or her own mistakes or misbehavior, being touchy or easily annoyed by others, being angry or resentful, or being spiteful or vindictive. -from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), taken from Network World
This is the description of a new “mental disorder,” called Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or “ODD.” (A strangely appropriate name —was it intentional?) This is, of course, to be applied to children, rather than adults, and there will soon be a drug designed to resolve the problem. Just as Paul said:
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. Galatians 5:19-21
The Greek word for “sorcery” here is pharmakeia —sorcery has always included misuse of drugs and potions to induce feelings or altered states. And what is a drug that “resolves” something like “ODD,” other than a drug designed to induce a specific state of consciousness? There is one key point in the definition of ODD that’s missing above —can you find it?
The point that’s missing is the idea of a just authority —or even just laws. And I don’t mean laws that are composed in the authority of a “duly appointed human government,” as if the phrase “duly appointed” means you can do no evil. I mean laws that run contrary to natural law, and the laws of God, or are applied in a way that produces favor, perverting the court and making the rule of law into a rule of personality cult.
When laws are unjust, and authorities designed to enslave, it is right to resist. When laws are just, and authorities fair, it is right to submit. What we have today is a world where just is called unjust —Israel is said to unjustly oppress the Palestinian people, for instance— and the unjust is called just. What we have today is a warping of words simply to gain power; right makes right, rather than might for right.
In our wholesale pursuit of might makes right, we are making children who know no bounds, because that is the best way to pass control of children from the family to the state. And what the state wants is nice, docile children, who sit in class, don’t disrupt, and —most of all— don’t confront their authority.
The solution for disobedience to a just authority is discipline. The solution for disobedience to an unjust authority is quickly becoming drugs. It gives new meaning to the phrase, “no child left behind.”
