# Speaking of Addiction

Originally published: 2012-11-25
Canonical URL: /2012/Nov/speaking-of-addiction/

[_Speaking_ of addiction](http://zackmdavis.net/blog/2012/11/things-that-are-hard-to-quit-non-exhaustive-list/), I suspect that relinquishing ideologically-induced moral outrage is actually harder than getting over many chemical dependencies (although I don't have any experience with the latter). At least with a drug, it's simple enough to draw a bright line around actions you're not supposed to do anymore; you can try pouring the contents of the liquor cabinet down the drain, or signing a [commitment contract](http://www.stickk.com/) to not buy or borrow any more cigarettes.

But when one of your most strongly-held beliefs (_strongly-held_ in the sense of emotional relevance, not actual probability; I'm very confident in the [monotone sequence theorem](http://zackmdavis.net/blog/2012/11/two-views-of-the-monotone-sequence-theorem/), but the truth of its negation wouldn't be a blow to _who I am_) turns out to be false—or if it still seems true, but it turns out that being continually angry at a Society that disagrees isn't a good allocation of cognitive resources—what do you do then? Turning your life around from that isn't anything as straightforward as preventing specific chemicals from entering your body; you have to _change the way you think_, which is to say _excise a part of your soul_. Oh, it grows back—that's the point, really; you want to stop thinking non-useful thoughts in order to replace them with something better—but can you blame me for having a self-preservation instinct, even if my currently-existing self isn't something that ought to be preserved?

But then, _blame_ or the lack thereof isn't the point.