Virtue and Vice in an Age of Addiction

It's been a long day, and you would like something to look forward to. It's there, waiting for you, easy to get when you're tired, feeling down, or merely bored, and though you sometimes worry that it may be a larger part of your life than it ought to be, you are assured that it is entirely normal, commonplace even, if not so common as to lose all appeal. Everyone's doing it, or at least everyone having fun, or the ones who are just like you. Besides, even if it's not so public, and even a little, shall we say, frowned upon, no one needs to know. And as long as you don't, you know, really overdo it, it's basically inexpensive. And anyway, who's to say if it's actually a problem? Some people who do it all the time seem just fine, and isn't the whole idea of being free and modern that there don't really have to be rules? Make your own way. You sort of miss rules, but also you don't. You sort of hate yourself, but also you don't. Or do you? It's not even a big deal. You just gotta get your morning started, or get to sleep, or through this slump. It's just a few pills, one more drink. You know?