wow. now gimme my fucking doritos.
The American spiritual crisis is this:
They have been given substitutes for every real thing.
Substitute grief: the movie, the memorial, the museum for someone else's genocide.
Substitute courage: the superhero, the soldier, the founding myth.
Substitute conscience: the charity, the awareness ribbon, the repost.
Each substitute is close enough to the real thing to satisfy the hunger without requiring what the real thing requires.
Which is cost.
Which is change.
Which is the willingness to look at what was done and remain looking until something in you is permanently altered.
The substitutes prevent the alteration.
That is their purpose.