Responsibility-Disabled

Roger Tullgren is a 42 year part-time old dishwasher in Hässleholm, Sweden who has a partial pension because of a disability. Tullgren is addicted to heavy metal music (specifically Black Sabbath), a condition recently recognized by the Swedish government as a disability. He first became “addicted” in 1971, and it seems that little else has mattered to him since that time. He attends 300 concerts a year, often skipping work to do so. For some reason, Tullgren has had a hard time holding a job. But now with an official diagnosis of a disability, Tullgren cannot be discriminated against. His current employer allows him to listen to his music while he is working and gives him plenty of time off to attend all of his concerts, as long as he makes up the time later.

So, is rock and roll an addiction disorder? Well, if he really attends that many heavy metal concerts, he will likely eventually become deaf, and that IS a legitimate disability! If we want to call Tullgren’s behavior an addiction, then that is OK. Or we can call it an obsession, an extreme passion or a manic fascination. The label really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we not excuse the personal responsibility that Mr. Tullgren has in choosing music over gainful employment. An addictive behavior does not remove responsibility. One skeptical psychologist comments on the Tullgren story, “If somebody has a gambling addiction, we don't send them down to the racetrack. We try to cure the addiction, not encourage it.”

Nature and nurture factors leading to our moral choices do not remove responsibility from making those choices. Some people are prone by nature or nurture or both to easily loose their temper. Or to abuse alcohol or drugs. Or to homosexual attraction. Or to any number of things. But ultimately the choice to engage in immoral behavior is just that—a moral choice for which we are responsible. We need to understand the forces that drive our addictive behaviors because that helps us to overcome those behaviors. But as in the case of Mr. Tullgren, very often we rather use them to excuse behavior and mitigate moral responsibility.

At some point, someone should have told Tullgren, “Dude, you can’t keep acting like Beavis and the other guy; you gotta grow up and take responsibility for your life. Sloth is irresponsible and immoral, and you need to stop it now.” Whatever our sin struggle, that is what we need to tell ourselves. And that is what we need others to tell us as well!