In the fitful present, with its boxy categories for success, genuine talent and a feeling of betrayal often become one and the same, making “next-generation superbia” all the more superb. We have seen how greed, has refocused the vision of many of the educated elite into self-congratulating cartoons. (GREED and ENVY aren’t among our “Nine … Read more
At no time has any era offered so much opportunity for both a delusional self-importance and a fear of the future as the twenty-first century. Moderns routinely see extremes of poverty and distress on their TVs, entertaining them with conditions of crisis and horror in the comfort of their living rooms, while video games are … Read more
Denial is the sin most descriptive of our age. When you can see so much that’s horrible, and with so many ways to counterfeit reality, denial may simply seem like pragmatism to many in the twenty-first century. Moreover, the current era offers countless ways to falsify and obscure the truth. Character has been replaced by … Read more
Indecision has been around and even documented for a long time, truly coming into its own with Shakespeare’s Hamlet. However, in recent years, indecision has assumed new qualities. Personal choice has broadened through wealth, research, self-help books and media exposure, and people living longer overall. There are inexhaustible amounts of information available for key life … Read more
Lust comes in many flavors, and one of the oldest and most poisonous is lust for power. In modern times, fed by media, this force has become an even more pervasive transgression. In its current form, Lust for Power is often masked behind feigned behavior pretending to be just the opposite, as power and popularity … Read more
If the last century should be remembered for anything besides its banality and destructiveness, it should also be cited for the advent of mass-market sexual teasing. Never before has sexual innuendo been so pervasively woven into everyday experience, from fashion, to magazines and TV as a part of global advertising—quite often consumed with avidity by … Read more
Brutality has been around long before human beings walked the planet. In ancient times, it was often a way of life. In moderns, however, brutality has taken on some additional dimensions. Media routinely delivers up brutality as entertainment with an ease and fascination never before possible—so that little children can contemplate thousands of killings before … Read more
Yet worse, is modern-day career vanity. Individuals corrupted by career vanity have a knack for controlling their situations at the expense of other people. Like physical vanity, career vanity is also about packaging and self-invention. But career vanity cuts even closer to the soul than physical vanity and can produce callous indifference to competitors, family … Read more
Many modern individuals are infected by physical vanity just as so many were in the past, yet now with a greater emphasis on packaging and image. Moreover, modernity offers a great number of distinctive advantages for anyone seeking to wallow in this particular sin. Both media and the internet provide endless opportunities for personal display … Read more
As his eyes scanned a kluge of spam, one email caught his eye. All the email said was: Hello, Marten. Visit the Devil’s Blog! It seemed too much of a coincidence to resist, even if common sense dictated that it was likely to be a trap to harvest his computer, or worse, inflict a virus. … Read more
