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It's work and running on fumes. Stress and pressure coming from far too many angles of attack simultaneously. Is there a significant gap between the evolution of our brains and what we are made to put up with in modern society? Is an opioid crisis or a mass shooting surprising in the same world where shopping is marketed as a form of therapy? I more often hear people talking about the need to dissociate after work, whereas it used to be called 'relaxation', often in the form of netflix, instagram, or youtube. Ex facebook engineers admitted to building the system of 'likes' to induce a dopamine hit. Drugs and alcohol have been used by governments to quell rebellions or to further the genocide of so called surplus populations. We are only beginning to try to muster enough wherewithal to understand what a project of subverting the cybernetic imposition on our lives could look like beyond "just destroy it", and frankly, I don't see that happening.

If we equalize everything, then yes heroin is no more of a problem than refined sugar. But tell that to someone trying to kick a junk addiction. Sweets dont make you rob your own family. I dont think what you are saying is a gotcha against straight edge, sobriety, or recovery. There is differences in degree of addicitive substances or acitivities and their consequences. I agree that modern industrial capitalist mass society is one of if not THE driver of addicition or finding ways to cope. I don't fault people for not being able to wait till we are rid of this world to try to get their head clear some amount. So maybe framing things in terms of addiction isn't the most useful. Its not all or nothing. Anarchists right now, sadly, don't have a lot going on as a colorful and enchanted alternative to the dreary numbing world we inhabit. Some of my best natural highs have been in the world of anarchy.