Contents

Preface

1. A Democracy of Excess

2. Sickening Excess

3. On Having Yourself Committed

4. The Cost of Good Inventions

5. The Perils of Prosperity

6. Self-control and Social Change

7. The Greek Way

8. The Marshmallow Test

9. The Seesaw Struggle

10. Let My People Go

11. The Intimate Contest

12. The Mind-Body Problem

13. Self-control, Free Will, and Other Oxymorons

14. Odysseus and the Pigeons

15. Crimes of Passion

16. Addiction, Compulsion, and Choice

17. Tomorrow Is Another Day

18. Cutting Loose

19. Government and Self-government

20. Being Your Own Godfather

21. Carpe Diem

Acknowledgments

Notes