Dry Capitalism

The new culture of sobriety is deeply complementary to the joyless, achievement-oriented, toxic positivity of the neoliberal age.

Dry January has, for a certain elect, become a rite of passage. Last year, even as the prolonged pandemic drove many toward drinking, approximately 15 percent of Americans observed. Now nominally recognized as a social trend, something approximating secular Lent for those whose lives lack in ceremonial penance, many professionals between the age of 25 a…