Why Addiction is the Master’s Favorite Tool

If the means of oppression are the Master’s Tools, then his toolbox must be quite large to hold them all. The hammer and nails of social constructs, the various pins of racism, sexism, and the like, which he uses to push us down, are just some of the many tools that the Master uses, and hands out among his children so they, too, may do the work of the Master. His power tools, though, he keeps out of the grasp of his children, because he uses them to keep them down and to keep them in his command, just as he uses them to keep us from becoming independent of him. While there are likely some number of these power tools, there is one which is perhaps the best example. That tool is Addiction, and it is the Master’s electric drill.

This tool is not like racism or sexism, which the Master’s pawns use to fight amongst themselves. Addiction is something that the Master uses to force every last one of us into our own little self-perpetuating oppression. Even the friends of the Master are victims of this, though their addictions keep them oppressing, while ours keep us oppressed. There are many attachments for the Master’s drill bit, each of them suited to a different job.

The most obvious form of addiction is substance abuse. We all know the way that alcohol has been used for centuries to keep the underprivileged masses from the full extent of their means–keep their income flowing into the tap, keep thought-suppressing fluids flowing out. Other drugs are just like this. On the surface, it would seem logical for the Master to simply legalize drugs to make them more abusable, but then, the poor would not have to fight over them, or spend so much time obtaining them, or develop the health problems that result from unclean drugs.

Addiction does not stop at substances. To keep the substance-free
from clear thoughts and free time, the Master occupies us with pop
culture, making it economically lucrative to keep people thinking about
the same series of books, the same series of films, and teaching us
from an early age that anything that expands our minds is inherently
“less fun” than what he would rather have us read. Censorship and
profit keep valuable thoughts less common and less obvious.

When the free exchange of information keeps profitability from
getting in the way, the Master must be crafty. He has many ways, to
suit the fact that the internet can cater to all our interests
separately. Interent memes, 24/7 socializing, and, in my case, online
gaming, all form a part of this.

We all have our own addictions, some of us more than one. In the
rare case that one manages to find themselves free of their addictions
for a period of time, they find that they must now fill the empty
stretches of time with their own thoughts, a practice we find
frightening when we aren’t used to it, but we warm up to it quickly.

So long as we are caged by our addictions, we are giving our
thoughts to something that doesn’t give back on equal terms. Some are
worse than others–24/7 socializing still strengthens our bonds with
our peers, and may give us a space for the exchange of ideas. The
difference between a valuable use of thoughts/time, and one which is
granting us diminishing returns, is when it becomes a true
addiction–do we really spend 4 hours a day online sharing ideas, or do
we only spend 1 hour a day sharing ideas, and 3 hours reading the same
page waiting for the excitement of a page update? There’s a thin line.
On one side, we avoid the Master’s drill bit; on the other side, we’re
screwed. Screwed right into that cage.