by Nathan Rabin
A.V. Club
Some people labor under the delusion that happiness is mankind’s natural state of being. But happiness has never been our birthright; anger, sadness, and death are our birthrights. Sleepless nights and haunted days are our birthrights. Heartbreak, anxiety, and self-doubt are our birthrights. Death, decay, mourning, failure, and rejection are our birthrights. Happiness is more like a pleasant surprise we get every once in a while, like a rainbow. Or a blowjob.
Yet in the insane days of the New Economy Bubble, it looked like permanent happiness forever was just around the corner. A soaring stock market and the exponential growth of the Internet would make millionaires out of everyone. Viagra would cure impotence and extend virility far longer than nature and common decency deigned possible or desirable. Rogaine and Propecia would make baldness a thing of the past. Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft would cure depression and anxiety. Technology would revolutionize our lives. Everything we ever wanted would be available at the click of a mouse.
Pharmaceutical companies and cyber-entrepreneurs were leading the way to a shimmering new utopia where all our problems could be solved by a pill or a website. Or a website peddling pills. Nobody wanted to ruin the party by pointing out that the New Economy was built on a slippery foundation of delusions, mania, and blind optimism.
Brain CandyThis is the world lampooned by1996’s Kids In The Hall: Brain Candy
To Read the Rest of the Essay
No comments:
Post a Comment