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LM: #344: 3 out of 5 ain’t good
I don’t drink anymore. Not as a conscious rule, just because the majority of times I’ve considered having a drink in the past ten years, not having it has seemed more appealing. That calculus has prevented me from having even one drink for well over the past year.
I’ve never been an alcoholic, but the more I reflect on my behavior when I was drinking, the more I think to myself – why is that okay?
Why is it okay to spend the equivalent of a working day going from bar to bar? Why is it okay for every romantic connection to be facilitated by alcohol? Why is it okay to be less happy and effective the next day because you drank too much last night?
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Lots have asked this lately, which is not where I’m going with this.
Where I’m going is, for how much other stuff are many of us a 2 or 3 out of 5, but we keep going as we were because it doesn’t qualify as a pathology?
It seems most of us are a little alcoholic, anxious, depressed, agoraphobic, sex- and love-addicted, etc.
Not enough to be a “problem,” and I think I know why.
Because for something to be a “problem,” it has to interfere with our work and relationships, etc. In other words, it has to interfere with our roles in capitalist society as contributors and consumers.
I’m not here to deliver an anti-capitalist screed or even suggest a conspiracy, but maybe 3/5 actually is a problem. And the only reason it’s not considered so is because our consumption hits the optimal balance when we’re just a little addicted, anxious, sad, lonely, out of control.
Aphorism: “No project can, of course, be more time-consuming than self-discovery.” —Harold Rosenberg
Book: Notes From Underground (Amazon) is Dostoevsky classic exploration of the human psyche, through the lens of an alienated and ostracized man.
Best,
David
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