“We must give up many things to which we are addicted, considering them to be good. Otherwise, courage will vanish, which should continually test itself. Greatness of soul will be lost, which can't stand out unless it disdains as petty what the mob regards as most desirable.”
- Seneca, Moral Letters, 74.12b-13
January 8, 2021 7:37 AM
Addiction. The term usually brings to mind some gritty behavior like drug use, alcohol abuse, pornography, etc. Those are the addictions that have a stigma associated with them. We rarely find addictions to coffee, soda, food, internet, social media, television, etc as insidious as the previous addictions.
All of these compulsions or vices separate us from our freedom and obscure our clarity. We are unknowingly relinquishing our control.
Conclusion
Our addictions vary. Soda? Pornography? Gossip? Coffee? Technology? Drugs? The insidiousness attached to our addiction does not matter. Our work should be to recover the ability to abstain. That will return us to our freedom. Return our self-control. Return our clarity.