Should you get clean of an addiction even if you can’t cure all addictions globally?
Alcoholism is a problem all over the world. There are individual alcoholics and there are systemic issues that lead to alcoholism. If you can’t cure all alcoholism all over the world, should you still get sober yourself?
The question sounds too obvious to ask. Of course an alcoholic should do what they can do overcome the addiction, even if they can’t help anyone else. It improves their life.
The reason to quit drinking isn’t to solve the global problem. Getting clean doesn’t deny the alcoholic receives some benefit from drinking.
The first reason to get sober is because you’re hurting others. Later because you’re hurting yourself. Other good reason to quit is because you’re funding an industry that may meets public demand but causes pain and suffering. Polluting too.
Is it obvious that whether we can stop global pollution, we benefit from getting clean from our addicted habits of polluting behavior like driving large SUVs, driving unnecessarily, buying from factory farms, buying doof, flying, having more than one or two kids, and so on?
We can get past saying, “what one person does doesn’t matter” or evaluating actions by how much they solve all our environmental problems and get to improving our lives by getting clean of our addictions.
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