NitN 42 - Queen of Cups (Jimmy Burgess: Every Addict has a Hole)
Geoff's tech guru and long-time meatspace friend, Jimmy Burgess delights with an intelligently nuanced and carefully considered conversation on topics inspired by the Queen of Cups: emotional balance, addiction, relationships and more!
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Intro!
Today’s intro is a snippet from How Xanax Breath Cured my Alcoholism:
Metamodernism suggests the defining metaphors of our time are the network, the spectrum and addiction. If nothing else, technology is society’s all-consuming addiction.
Innovation doesn’t solve problems, it just externalizes them or pushes the consequences down the road. The hubris that we can control nature without unintended side effects is baseless.
Heroine addicts can fall into a devastating trap: the only solution to their problems must be more heroin. I can’t help being reminded of that when I hear about some new invention that promises to mitigate climate change. As Douglas Rushkoff frequently says, it’s like the mega-wealthy want to “build a car that can drive fast enough to escape their own exhaust.”
In the case of the heroin addict, this singular focus on only one solution remains all-consuming until they overdose. In technology’s case, we are almost at that point: we are creating pandemics, climate change, mass mental illness… the list goes on.
The heroin addict will either die—technology is angling to destroy the planet’s ability to harbor life—or have a moment of clarity and connect with a higher power. We still have time to regress technologically while reviving spirituality.
I realize this is an ironic conclusion, when I told you to download a meditation app in the instructions. Yes, a metronome will work just as well. You could even simply count to yourself in a quiet room.
But regardless of the technology that assists you, give the technique a shot. The more people who break out of an addictive mindset, the better our chances of curbing consumption and preserving the habitability of our planet.
At the very least, you can enjoy true equanimity while the world burns.