Growing up in Asheville in the ‘60s was not unlike a cool, green mountain version of the movie “Happy Days.”

Nowhere was this comparison more evident than on what was, at that time, the only eastern gateway to the city — Tunnel Road.

It was a neon feast of muscle cars, flirting teenagers, good food, drive-in theaters, and anticipation of the unexpected. 

There were occasional fights and car-to-car profanities, but the nighttime mood had more in common with the soft melodies of the Drifters than the poorly camouflaged hatred of today’s hip-hop. 

Ask anyone who cruised this gateway in its heyday. They’ll tell you Asheville’s Tunnel Road is a paradise lost.

Fast forward to now. You know, the age of progressivism — a period in Asheville’s history characterized by transplants, alternative lifestyles, drugs, money, wall-to-wall hotels and smothering liberal notions of idealism.

This Tunnel Road can best be described as a fragmented, confused, dark, lost and ugly version of its former self. 

Street people — reliably matched to our city’s out-of-control drug culture — careen across the roadway with abandon, shoplift with impunity, beg relentlessly, and die by the morgue-load from overdoses.

Today’s Tunnel Road is what results from cultural narcissism aided and abetted by an explosion of addictions. Allow me to explain.

It’s all about feeling good

The No. 1 addiction in America is to feeling good. In fact, every addiction traces back to this agenda. We are nothing if not fascinated by the drive to feel good at all times in all ways.

Sometimes the path to feeling good may be something good — a nice meal in a nice restaurant. It can also come in a bad way, such as consuming too much alcohol or indulging mood swings. No matter the path to feeling good, it’s a life dedication that reliably traverses the edge of a cliff.

Power is addictive?

One of the most overlooked addictions in our culture is that of power. Yep, there are few sources of pleasure that can match it.

Power makes you feel strong, in control, and valuable. The fixes of power are limitless, and as history demonstrates, so too are the resulting appetites for more.

Witness our current president.

Vanity, vanity, all is vanity

Solomon was quick to remind us that so much of what we do falls into the category of vanity. Such behaviors may temporarily pump our ego or feed a sense of idealistic superiority, but in the end, they just fool us into self-destruction.

And so it is with the liberal-progressive-socialist movement. Whether slaughtering our criminal justice system, advancing an exploding drug culture, throwing open our borders, misusing our children’s future to fund today’s governmental excess, or stumbling over the nature-affirmed simplicities of two complimentary genders under attack by a clamoring chorus of confused wannabees, the left is nothing if not vain.

There are lots of problems with vanity, but the big one, as demonstrated in the previous paragraph, is that it makes you stupid. An artificial sense of self-importance feels good, but sucks the life out of judgement and realism.

Read the Democrat’s party platform for a demonstration of such.

A banquet of addictive opportunities

We can get addicted to just about anything, but some are show-stoppers.

It’s fun to spend money. Washington offers evidence that this is especially true when it’s someone else’s money.

Fear and worry are two stellar addictions that travel hand-in-hand. When we get tired of fear and worry, it’s also typical to move onto another highly magnetic feeling – anger. Anger is a power fix we use to temporarily scrub away emotions – like fear — that make us feel powerless.

Thanks to a growing army of authoritarian leaders, dependency on government is an ever-expanding addiction. Once this genie is released from the bottle, it never wants to go back.

In case you haven’t noticed, food is another big addiction. Contrary to those who relentlessly play the “feed the hungry” guilt button, for the vast majority, too much food is the problem. Take a moment to visit your favorite free-food site and you will note that a majority of the participants are obese. It’s certainly not true for everyone, but the oft touted concern with “food insecurity” has more to do with withdrawal than an empty tummy.

Check yourself

Addiction is on the sharp end of evil’s sulfurous spear. If the deceiver wants you — and he wants us all – he will stir the temptations of addiction.

If there’s something going on in life that’s crowding out normal living – that’s a tell-tale giveaway of an addictive influence. Work on it.

Remember, too, denial always comes packaged with addiction and dependably blinds us to our misguided choices.

And that’s an important point as well. Every addiction begins with a choice over which we initially have total control. Blindness comes later.