Doug Thorburn, addiction expert, addiction contrarian and author of the recently released
Alcoholism: Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease, has just released his June/July 2009
Thorburn Addiction Report and the Top Story chronicles the story of James W. Von Brunn, the racist, white supremacist and alcoholic murderer of the security at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Thorburn, a contrarian in terms of the prevailing opinions on addiction, brings to light a number of stories behind the headlines which have been served up lately.
In addition to the Top Story of the Month and the Runners-up in the TAR, also known as the Thorburn Addiction Report, there is number of interesting sections like Enabler of the Month, Under Watch, Book Review and others.
Top Story
James W. Von Brunn, Racist Octogenarian—and Alcoholic
In
Drunks, Drugs & Debits, I explained that the addicted ego can impel the addict to degrade, defile and ridicule others in an effort to build himself up. Sometimes this devolves into hatred, which can be directed against entire classes of people, as in racism or bigotry. I surmised that while not all racists and bigots are addicts, probably most are. Former Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver recanted his idea of a war between races only after he got sober. Former
Governor George Wallace died "not drinking" with huge support among Blacks, who formerly had been the target of his racial epithets. Adolf Hitler was an amphetamine and barbiturate addict. As mentioned in How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics, while a few cites do not prove the case, one is hard-pressed to find an example of a person filled with hatred, especially one who acts out on that emotion, who is not afflicted with brain damage rooted in alcohol or other-drug addiction.
The trouble is proving it, which requires evidence of addictive use. As pointed out in the Top Stories on
Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and Anthrax Killer Bruce Ivins, alcoholism, if mentioned at all, is often relegated to the 28th paragraph of stories describing idiotic or destructive behaviors.
The story of 88-year-old James W. Von Brunn (allegedly) killing a black security guard at the Washington, D.C. Holocaust museum is no exception. According to acquaintances, he had been "growing more angry, hateful and desperate in recent weeks," when he wrote, "It's time to kill all the Jews." He was reportedly in financial trouble, telling others his Social Security had been cut, which he blamed on "someone in Washington looking at his Web site," which is filled with racist rants and extreme hatred of Jews and Blacks. He claimed the Holocaust was a hoax and that a Jewish conspiracy was out to "destroy the white gene pool."
It would be enormously educational for the uninitiated public if journalists and historians mentioned the likelihood of alcoholism in the introductory paragraphs of stories in which confabulated thinking takes form in horrific behaviors. Instead, an FBI informant who had contact with Von Brunn is quoted as saying, "You'd get the impression that he was intelligent and a bit off," which seems rather innocuous. A cousin said her family had disowned him 50 years ago, believing him to be mentally ill.
One article quotes his ex-wife saying she'd divorced him three decades ago because she "could no longer take his racist beliefs," with no mention of any drinking, much less alcoholism. Finally, the likely root of his twisted thinking and horrific actions can be found in the 20th paragraph of another piece, which devotes greater detail to his ex-wife's comments: "He is an abusive, racist alcoholic" and during their marriage "he drank red wine all day." The first comment would never have included the word "alcoholic" if she wasn't, in her mind, certain, and the latter would never have been mentioned were the use not an issue.
However, alcoholism is no more "the" prerequisite for racism than it is for smoking. The link between behaviors and alcoholism is partially a function of society's norms. Non-addicts who grow up in families or cultures filled with racists or smokers are clearly at risk of continuing the misbehaviors. Smoking is a useless clue to alcoholism in Japan because practically everyone smokes, but is extremely useful in California where most non-alcoholics have given up tobacco. The tattoo is becoming a less helpful clue in identifying likely alcoholism as it becomes an increasingly accepted form of art. Racism, however, has become increasingly unacceptable and, as such, is probably a superb clue to alcoholism—which, where it exists, explains the distorted thinking and, on rare occasion, nightmarish behaviors.
There are few if any instances in the last decade of horrific news events in which alcoholism cannot be linked to racist-based murder or other "hate" crimes. Benjamin Smith, who went on a shooting rampage against Jews, Blacks and Asians in Illinois and Indiana over the 4th of July weekend in 1999 had spent a year in drug counseling three years earlier, when he was apprehended for possession of illegal drugs.
Buford Furrow Jr., who murdered a mail carrier and wounded five others during a rampage through the San Fernando Valley in August 1999, was reportedly drunk when, after trying to have himself admitted to a psychiatric hospital, he was arrested for threatening to stab a hospital staffer who tried to take his car keys.
An attorney defending racist skinheads in 2000 said, seemingly in their defense, that they were far more likely to fight each other than harm others, since they get "drunk together and take mind-altering drugs when they're not in prison." A story in Alcoholism Myths and Realities, from myth # 65 "He's no alcoholic; he's just racist," is illustrative: "The story of
Sven Hermany may be typical of German-style Neo-Nazi skinheads. Hermany began drinking at age 14 and was in trouble from the outset. He…followed up with crimes progressively more violent…[and at] a vocational boarding school for troubled students…found it difficult to get out of bed after drinking 'a lot,' as he put it….At age 21 after drinking all night, he and a friend attacked a black man,
William Poku, at a bus stop….At his trial Hermany announced, 'I am a racist.' Appealing to the court later for a lighter sentence, he told the judge he had changed. He was no longer a Nazi and, in a statement suggesting he had put two and two together, he promised to 'give up drinking.'"
Alcoholic egomania impels the addict to wield power over others capriciously. The form that such abuse of power takes is a function of the addict's environment, circumstances, physical prowess, constitution, skill-sets, virulence of the particular strain of alcoholism inherited, the particular drug or drugs of choice and underlying personality type. On occasion, these channel distorted thinking toward racism and manifest in horrific acts. Even an 88-year-old who has, judging by his age and likely decades of use, a particularly hardy constitution, is susceptible.
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irwinzuckerpr@aol.com The Thorburn Addiction Report is available to newspapers as a regular feature column. Inquiries are invited.
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