Bruce Wilshire

Bruce Wilshire's book on addiction, obsession, compulsion... Wild Hunger: The Primal Roots of Modern Addiction. "These days our relation to wilderness is strained and ambiguous," a rediscovery of native roots is overdue.


Bruce's other "primal roots" book on American philosophy is very good, too, and will be useful when we do the Native Wisdom component of Environmental Ethics next Spring.

irresistible

Addiction has a bad name, and usually deserves it. Sometimes it can be channeled in positive ways. Probably not, though, in Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible" story, or Joel Fleischman's. (Did you know he was multi-lingual?) I mention them here self-indulgently, and in an attempt to discharge the memetic loop of that song in my brain triggered by thoughts on this topic. The song is  just fun, and the video just went up on YouTube in time to echo my obsession.

Another example of irresistible, bio-chemical compulsion: the Star Trek crew's addiction to a game, secretly and sinisterly a weapon. Is this what gets people lining up for iPhones et al? Hope not.