“Advertising is legalized lying.” —H.G. Wells
Behind every door. Around every corner. Sprouting from every sidewalk crack. Creeping in the shadows, ready to strike.
We are continuously being pitched, convinced, and enticed. An onslaught of fantastical facts, a barrage of outrageously superlative claims. Like moths to a dangerous flame, our eyes widen with the prospect of attainment and a misguided, fleeting sense of completion. But our wings are stuck in honey-coated manipulation, dragging us down into the muck as we drown in our own avarice.
Bloodsucking corporations blinded by bottom lines are constantly inventing new ways to addict, beguile, and seduce. Praying on the most vulnerable, profits are turned and blindfolds are fastened with the nonchalance of a coin flip. Unfeeling, uncaring, and unsympathetic. After one target is struck, the next simply slides into the crosshairs. People are reduced to numbers on spreadsheets, existing only to further fuel a runaway train of greed and gluttony.
Algorithms predict our habits and preferences, frighteningly anticipating each keystroke and instinctual click with a level of accuracy that could be better designated for research or solutions to help elevate mankind instead of obliterating it.
Fat cats find ways to only get fatter. Free from fear of repercussion or consequence, boundaries aren’t just crossed, they’re redrawn. Puppet masters pulling strings to make the population dance and sway to the sounds of its own funeral dirge. Laughing all the way to the stock exchange, burdened only by the weight of their preposterous bonuses and options. Congratulating themselves for another assignment masterfully accomplished.
Is there any limit to the force-feeding we must endure? Can someone please turn off the flashing neon lights and sugary slick presentations? We don’t need more things. We don’t need more waste. We don’t need any more help getting sicker, lazier, more complacent, or more apathetic.
We’re already doing a pretty astounding job of destroying ourselves without any corporate assistance.
Solitary Alignment 