So I mentioned Rush Limbaugh yesterday, and that immediately brought out the hecklers. Which is not surprising; he’s a divisive guy, he’s made his living being divisive and creating division in others. He has been called many things along the way: a monster, a bully, a hypocrite, a big fat idiot, a lying Nazi whore, and many more. He has defined himself by his politics and his polemics and his personality.
I have never agreed with his worldview or the way he promotes it, but I can say for certain that today, here and now, Rush Limbaugh is not a monster, not a bully, not a hypocrite or an idiot or a lying Nazi whore.
He’s just an addict.
Responses to the effect of well, that sucks, but he’s still a right-wing nut
are a form of category error. He is not a right-wing nut. Yesterday? Yes, perhaps yesterday he was a right-wing nut. Today he’s just an addict.
Addiction is many things to many people. It wears many masks and comes in many forms. But it always has one fundamental rule: it does not leave room for anything else. It does not leave room for politics, or polemics, or personality. It does not leave room for anything. That is its essential nature.
Rush Limbaugh is an addict. At this moment, he is not anything else. If he is very lucky, and works very hard for the rest of his life, he may get to be a recovering addict. Which is a good thing to be, because recovering addicts can be other things too. If you hold your addiction at bay long enough, you can make room for politics and polemics and personality to rise again.
To those who have never been either, this sounds like a bum deal. But it’s not so bad when you consider the alternative. Because there is not — and this is the really important point — there isn’t a third option. You can be an addict, or you can be a recovering addict. There is no door #3.
This is the corollary to the fundamental rule, that addicts are forever defined by their addiction. Either positively or negatively, but defined in either case. You no longer get to choose how you define yourself; your drug of choice defines you, long after it’s gone.
So I pray. I pray that he is serious about his rehabilitation. I pray that he has the will and the strength and the support to get out of the hole he has dug for himself. I pray that someday he can become a recovering addict who is as much a monster, a bully, a hypocrite, a big fat idiot, and a lying Nazi whore as he ever was.
It’s important to have goals like that.
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