How to Break an Addiction

<p><b>What the opioid epidemic teaches us about the addiction at the root of our social life-and how we free ourselves from it.</b></p><p><i>How To Break An Addiction</i> paints an original and dynamic portrait of the nature of the opioid crisis while offering original commentary on what the crisis portends about the present historical conjuncture. Interrogating long- and short-run macro and micro national and global structural and personal factors it takes the ongoing US opioid crisis as a jumping off point to illustrate the profound conclusion: capitalism at its core is an addiction.</p><p>In a blend of memoir historical record original research and theoretical and cultural analysis critical geographer and harm reduction activist Annie Spencer argues against a dominant ‘progressive' presumption of the need to reform (or ‘save’) capitalism demonstrating instead the imperative to think organize and enact new ways of being and provisioning together on a living Earth.</p><p><i>How To Break An Addiction</i> renders visible the extent to which the world we inhabit today is made by addiction—in capital’s image—and against life and well-being. Spencer calls for redress of the deepening crisis of addiction and the so-called ‘epidemic’ of pain at its root; for a paradigm shift away from the dominant economic logic in favor of new kinds of ecosystemic social practice and provision. We must innovate a new way of being human together in the here and now. Spencer’s first-person narration anchors rigorous and far-reaching research and theory making for an original and impactful tour through capital’s addiction to crisis and our ability—and need—to break from it.</p>