What’s in vogue in any era will mirror the social context. Anti-anxiety drugs (benzodiazepines) were especially popular before and during the “liberation movement,” as if the stress invoked by raising awareness created a bigger need for checking out (or the other way around: sedatives may help us avoid addressing social or personal injustice). Similarly, the opiate epidemic might reflect a reluctance to deal with suffering—in our own lives, but also in the collective as we slowly come to face our complicity in the world’s misery and twenty-four-hour news makes it ever less possible to escape
...more
