[lit-ideas] Re: a million little pieces
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 20:22:31 -0500
> [Original Message]
> From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 1/16/2006 3:28:02 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: a million little pieces
>
> It's curious to me that if one exhibits several
> symptomatic factors of an addiction (in the
> "disease" parlance) they are said to be diseased.
> If however, after extensive interviews, they
> display to their 'aide' that they can stop and the
> do in fact stop, then the aide falls back on the
> circular argument that "oh, well then you aren't
> really addicted in the first place."
>
> ____
>
> Q: What is an alcoholic?
> A: Someone who drinks more than their doctor.
>
> Twelve-step AA people have their own circular
> arguments. You have a disease against which you
> are powerless, according to those folk. When you
> "hit bottom," you go to the AA rooms and seek help
> to stay sober. You follow their program and its
> ideology, etc., not to cure disease but to place
> it in remission, sort of. Thus if you decide to
> stop drinking by yourself, reject the AA ideology,
> you still have the disease, but you are what they
> call a "dry drunk," which is like an accident
> waiting to happen.
>
> What doesn't change is the diagnosis: disease.
> Everything else can change.
>
> _Infinite Jest_ by David Foster Wallace has a good
> presentation of this ideology, probably as a
> result of Wallace's experience in rehab. Wallace
> also advances his own notion of the connection
> between "entertainment" and addiction.
>
> The Greek word translated as "lust" in the New
> Testament essentially means "excessive love for a
> good thing."
The difference between love and excessive love is like the difference
between water and excessive water. Water is great, but if you had a foot
of it in your living room, that's a problem.
You like Bombay Negronis too much and
> that cocktail becomes a false idol, causing you to
> violate the First Commandment. And so on.
>
> I don't know what to make of any of these notions
> of addiction. Twelve step supposedly helps a lot
> of people, but it sounds cultish and fascist.
Or accepting and guiding, depending on one's perspective.
The
> disease model of addiction seems a betrayal of the
> human will. Wallace's notion is interesting but is
> it useful? And the biblical lust model pins every
> love on an absolute which is by definition unknowable.
>
>
Will is not even useful for new year's resolutions. With addiction it's
useless.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
> digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
