Addiction is proof that you're capable of intense devotion. You are just serving the wrong god.
The same energy you waste on porn, dopamine hits, scrolling, weed, toxic relationships, or overthinking — that fire is your greatest weapon. The difference between a slave and a king is not the capacity for obsession. It's what you choose to obsess over. Master your focus. Channel your addiction into discipline. Serve the right god.
Info & reflection: addiction as energy pointed the wrong way, not as a lack of strength: the problem isn't the capacity for obsession, it's the object. It connects straight to the note on doomscrolling: same neurological mechanism, different direction.
Related in anthology
- Il termine greco utilizzato nei Vangeli per designare il peccato deriva dal verbo amartano, che significa letteralmente «fallire il bersaglio» ed è un termine tecnico usato dagli arcieri. […] Gli impulsi passionali, la freccia, sono cosa sacra e buona, il problema è dove miri, quale è il bersaglio a cui tendi, verso che direzione hai scoccato la freccia. — amartano as the wrong target: the same idea in the Gospel tradition — passion is sacred, the problem is the direction
- It is that same arrow, first aimed at the wrong target, that once the right aim is understood drives us to the goal. — Climacus: the same arrow, once you understand the right aim, drives you to the goal — exactly the logic of the "right god"