As shared in yesterday's post, Kent Dunnington argues in Addiction and Virtue that addiction can be viewed as a prophetic critique of modernity.
How so?
Dunnington argues that "addiction is ubiquitous in contemporary life...because addiction makes accessible certain kinds of moral and intellectual goods, which the development of modernity have made otherwise difficult to attain."
What are the "moral and intellectual goods" of addiction? What makes addiction so addictive?
Dunnington argues that modernity is characterized by a moral, spiritual and psychological malaise. Malaise is defined as "a general feeling of discomfort, illness, or uneasiness whose exact cause is difficult to identify."
According to Dunnington, this malaise -- the uneasiness we experience in modernity -- is characterized by three main symptoms: Arbitrariness, boredom and loneliness. Addiction, Dunnington argues, is so addictive because addiction uniquely addresses these three symptoms. Addiction is, thus, a uniquely modern problem as addiction is particularly well-suited for "treating" what ails modern people.
This is not to deny that addiction existed or was a problem before modernity, just the claim that as modernity exacerbated our feelings of arbitrariness, boredom and loneliness it has caused us to become increasingly drawn to addictive behaviors to reduce the discomfort we experience in modernity. Consequently, as pointed out in yesterday's post, addiction functions as a form of prophetic critique, pointing us toward the moral, spiritual and psychological failures of modernity.
In this and the next two posts we'll walk through how addiction address the three symptoms of modernity's malaise. We start, today, with arbitrariness.
As many scholars have pointed out, modernity has lost its telos (goal, direction, purpose). In the words of Robert Jenson, modernity lost its story. According to Charles Taylor, the modern "secular age" lives in the "immanent frame," a disenchanted culture that has lost touch with transcendent sources of meaning. We've lost the metaphysical framework that tells us who we are and where we are going.
The modern person is abandoned, therefore, to their choices, radically free to make decisions and chart a direction in life but without a map or any compelling reason to navigate in a particular direction. There is no "point" to anything, just you and your choices. Any meaning or telos for your life is the one you choose for yourself. There is no grand narrative or plotline you're being caught up in. Life is, rather, a Choose-Your-Own adventure novel.
As I describe in Hunting Magic Eels, this view of the human person is perfectly suited to capitalism and consumerism. In modernity our choices and freedoms are maximized allowing us to pursue our true, "authentic" selves in the quest for self-fulfillment and self-actualization. The trouble with this, as we all know, is the person looking back at us in the mirror. True, in modernity I am the Captain of my own ship. And that's a thrilling prospect. But as I ponder my life I quickly come to the conclusion that I'm a pretty unreliable captain. I'm fickle, weak-willed, and self-deluded. My true, authentic self -- the Real Me -- seems to change year to year, if not day to day. Sometimes I want this, and sometimes I want that.
Again, this is the perfect situation for capitalism, marketers wooing me with rival visions of my best self, getting me to indulge or improve myself with this or that product or plan, people making money off me as I spin my wheels searching for happiness and fulfillment.
In short, without a larger goal, telos or story guiding my life, it all seems pretty arbitrary. I could do this or that, and the choice doesn't matter all that much. Because I can change my mind. I can reinvent myself in this instant.
Yes, freedom and choice provide us with a sense of control, but they do so by removing the existential weight of existence. Nothing matters, not really and not ultimately. There's just the next commercial, the next vacation, the next gym membership, the next Netflix episode, the next iPhone, the next house (bigger and better), the next shopping trip, the next Super Bowl party, the next Stars Wars or Marvel release, the next Friday night out with the guys or girl friends.
Modernity is just an arbitrary string of "nexts" that don't add up to anything substantive or valuable.
According to Dunnington, then, addiction is addictive because it addresses this sense of arbitrariness, that nothing matters more than anything else. Addiction is addictive because it gives weight to the unbearable lightness of being, gives texture to the consumeristic flatness of modern life.
Dunnington's summary of this:
Addiction is a sort of rejection of consumerism's enthronement of the immediate over the teleological. It is true that many addictions begin from a desire to be distracted by immediate gratification. But addiction is addicting rather than merely distracting exactly because it provides the kind of propelling and purposive force that consumerism cannot provide...
Addiction provides what consumers do not believe exists: necessity. Major addiction can therefore be interpreted both as a response to the absence of teleology in modern culture and as a kind of embodied critique of the late capitalist consumerism which this absence has produced.
Addiction is addictive because it makes something matter in a world where nothing matters.
This is such a large part of what I see as a therapist in a large, secular, and highly capitalistic society. I know that there are answers, but it is so very difficult to fill the void. Psychology seems to offer bandages, but does not get to the existential root. So much of what people say is a spiritual answer as in mindfulness and being present in the moment, does not fill the void of connection and a meaning that is beyond the self. ... not sufficiently in my opinion. So much of the church is ill and supports what is hurting us, the fundamentalists repressing authenticity and favoring males, and so many of us have broken families. Communities are difficult to create or find in large urban centers. Concern for others and empathy is dying in exchange for individualism and the desire for self-satisfaction. Most people don't have jobs that promote the common good and truly help others in ways that they experience. They know down deep they are a cog in a wheel of arbitrariness. So many are secular and are not open to faith. What is the answer? If we just say, believe in Jesus, it does not go anywhere.
Addiction & modernity make promises they can not keep & weren’t designed to keep. I reference them as being like Mylar balloons, shiny & big on the outside full of air on the inside. They bait us to outer edge of their extremes then we are shamed when we go too far because they have baked in progressive dissolution.
John Elderedge, Jordan Peterson & many other great thinkers have written & lectured on the power of purpose & upward-outward striving. As Elderedge has said, God has an adventurous heart & that heart He placed in us. We were made to be seekers. Addiction & modernity highlights this. All God rejecting modern people are still seeking something that’s greater than just themselves. What I think about a lot is ‘Why aren’t they seeking God?’ As He is the provider of what our hearts desire & were made for. I’ve concluded that “christians” (little “c” emphasized) have made it impossible to want to know Jesus & the Father. I’m not talking about the smoke, mirrors & light shows glamour of knowing Jesus, I’m talking about knowing all of Who & What He’s about. Far too many people know about Jesus yet do not know Him, meaning they don’t seek Him & trust Him. There’s no real emphasis on the fact that following Jesus makes our lives better & makes us better at life. The reality is that since most people are seeking something & since those somethings are fulfillment & purpose they are, in the final analysis, seeking Jesus we just look for Him in all the wrong places.
The Good News about seeking true purpose & fulfillment in modernity & addictions is that there is an expiration date & when we reach the end of ourselves Jesus is always there, He’s looking for us just like the prodigal son’s father was looking for him. Our commission is to be there with the Good News of Christ when the pieces do fall because they will & do.