Johann Hari “Everything You Think You Know About Addiction Is Wrong” (Verbal) PDF

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Bogale 1 Leul T. Bogale Professor Jajo RWS 100 Essay One 5 October 2021 Explaining addiction effectively The 2015 video “Everything You Think You Know About Addiction Is Wrong,” featured on the social media platform, TED, by Johann Hari, argues the other side of addiction is connection. By uploading this video Hari aims to persuade family and friends on how to treat addicts. This paper will evaluate Hari’s claims and evidence in order to prove the argument’s effectiveness towards his intended audience. One of Hari’s pieces of evidence is seen when he introduces the rats and the rat parkcontrolled experiment. At the beginning of the video, Hari states, “we'll bond and connect with each other, but if you can't do that, because you're traumatized or isolated or beaten down by life, you will bond with something that will give you some sense of relief” (6:09-6:20). He then uses the experiments data taken from a reliable source to support this claim. Hari aims to educate those who do not know the origins of addiction, in order to prove addiction is caused by the influences of the environment. He attracts viewer, and most likely supporters, by establishing his knowledge of the experiment at the start of the argument resulting in a successful and strong tactic. Hari’s knowledge of the historical aspect of experiment is just one of many strong pieces of evidence applied in the video. As mentioned above, most of the Hari’s evidence successfully supported his claims, there was one piece of evidence that ultimately made his overall argument effective. For instance, the

Bogale 2 evidence taken from the experiment conducted in Portugal to support his claim that, “injecting drug use is down in Portugal, according to the British Journal of Criminology, by 50 percent… One of the ways you know it's worked so well is that almost nobody in Portugal wants to go back to the old system” (9:50-10:08). Although taking evidence from the mentioned source may seem biased with his included observations, it turns the source into the most strategic piece of evidence Hari uses. It is likely Hari’s audience, is knowledgeable of people with an addiction, and will find out the source does exist, which will not only make his overall argument effective, but it will increase his credibility as an author. This is the main reason why his argument succeeded in persuading the intended audience. Hari continues to argue, “Everyone has a bit of them that looks at an addict and thinks, I wish someone would just stop you” (12:35-12:40). To simplify, they are all in the same position, and are going through the same problems. In order to support his claim and make his reason viable, he uses pathos to resonate with his audience. By talking truthfully about himself, Hari aims to create a connection with others if they want to recover from an addiction. Telling his audience that they aren’t alone further proves ethos and pathos appeals. Overall, Hari’s evidence was effective because it built upon his introduction from the beginning of the video of friends and family of addicts. Hari declare that “everything we think we know about addiction is wrong” in his Ted talk of the same name (with nearly 18 million views). For example, “I love you whether you're using or you're not. I love you, whatever state you're in, and if you need me, I'll come and sit with you because I love you and I don't want you to be alone or to feel alone” (13:37-13-40).

Hari emphasizes the need to move away from punishing individuals struggling with addiction and work on compassion and establishing meaningful human connections. Although he had some biased observations, the talk is deeply motivational, and filled with accurate, simplified and

Bogale 3 categorical information. This is largely because Hari is a journalist by training and not a scientist or addiction specialist. Fortunately, highlights the results of his research. To conclude, Hari’s intention to persuade family and friends to accept addicts was effective for the reasons listed above. The opposite of addiction is connection, Hari used successful evidence throughout his article to support his main claims, but what outweighed all evidence was taken from the Portugal experiment. Not only that but this isn’t the first time something as tragic as this has happened, due to that it should be known. Hari’s approach, handling and clarification of information in this article proved that his observation was credible and reliable.

Fortunately, Hari chose to tell the truth and gain credibility rather than tell misguided results about himself and others.

Bogale 4 Work Cited Hari, Johann. “Everything You Think You Know about Addiction Is Wrong.” TED, https://www.ted.com/talks/johann_hari_everything_you_think_you_know_about_addiction _is_wrong?language=en#t-762023. 2015...