Re: Who's defining addictive behavior (Score 1)

Any behavior can become psychologically addicting (we'll ignore physically addicting activities like substance abuse for the moment). People argue that gambling should be banned or at least tightly controlled because it can become a harmful addiction. Using that logic, video games, skydiving, sex, shopping and even food and drink (non-alcoholic) would have to be banned. There are known instances where people have wrecked their lives, because these addictions have led to money problems, lost jobs, disease, physical injury, and even death. Of course, there are people who already have proposed the banning of any combination of these activities. The Temperance Movement wasn't about temperance (i.e. moderation). It was about an ideology of social engineering, attempting to remove from society those activities one found objectionable merely because a minority of the people partaking abused the activity. Let's not go back down that road.