A key intent of the Georgia 6th District Learning Community is to help our residents improve our “Media Literacy.”
To that end we have spent a lot of time on “decoding” political speech. In fact we are compiling a translations of sorts to help our residents filter and focus on what leaders in our community are saying. You can see the latest translations here.
Ben Carson has just provided some more data for us to analyze.
In a Face the Nation interview on Sunday Nov 10, 2015, John Dickerson asked Carson John Dickerson, asks: “As a doctor, what’s your sense of the human side of addiction? Where does it come from, how should it best be treated?” This question is based on a recent finding that 25 percent of New Hampshire voters said drug abuse was the most serious problem in New Hampshire,  poll.
This is an important question not only in New Hampshire but here in the 6th District.  Addiction is a significant problem and we need to find ways to mitigate addictions negative influences on our community.
Here is Ben Carson’s response.

So, let’s try and decode Carson’s answer.
Carson answered that a lack of values and principles were responsible for serious drug abuse:

There are all kinds of addictions and addictions occur in people who are vulnerable who are lacking something in their lives, so we really have to start asking ourselves what have we taken outside of our lives in America? What are some of those values and principles that allowed us to ascend the ladder of success so rapidly to the pinnacle of the world and the highest pinnacle anyone else had ever reached, and why are we throwing away all of our values and principles for the sake of political correctness?

It is important to note that two Princeton economists recently released findings that the rising death rates for middle-aged white people, especially those were less educated, may stem from substance abuse problems. In comparison, the death rates for middle-aged black and Hispanic people are going down. Although there was a sharp rise in the suicide rate for middle-aged white people, drug abuse was most responsible for pushing up the death rate, the New York Times reported.
Carson’s answer is heavily laced with code words.
But before I get into decoding Ben Carson. Let me provide a counter point to Ben Carson’s response.
Dr. Carl Hart, a famous neuroscientist, author, and activist who has spent more than 16 years studying the effects of drugs on humans offers a sane answer to Dickerson’s question – there are many causes of addiction. Dr. Hart wrote in an op-ed published in the New York Times:

“People become addicted for a variety of reasons ranging from psychiatric disorders to economic desperation. That is why it is, first, critically important to determine the reasons underlying each person’s addiction before intervening with half-baked solutions. For example, if a person is using heroin to deal with anxiety or trauma, effective treatment of the psychiatric illness should alleviate the need to use heroin. Similarly, providing destitute addicts with specific skills and viable economic opportunities will go a long way in helping them to overcome their drug addiction. A lesson here is that one shoe doesn’t fit all and that careful assessment is an important component in helping addicts.”

Notice the differences between the responses.
Carson said, “There are all kinds of addictions and addictions occur in people who are vulnerable who are lacking something in their lives, so we really have to start asking ourselves what have we taken outside of our lives in America?”
Specifically he is talking about God. And specifically he is talking about taking God out of the Public Square, taking God out of the Classrooms, and taking God out of the Courts (reference Kim Davis and Gay Marriage.)
Conservative will hear these code word and know exactly what Carson means. Sadly they will agree with him.
Of course if you question Carson on the use of these code words he will say you are putting words in his mouth.
The implication is that only America has a addiction problem and that this addiction problem is a recent thing. Of course that is ludicrous on it’s face. Everyone country for all time has had addiction problems. It does not matter the quantity of God in the Country.