Experience teaches me again and again that my autonomy… and therefore any hope of claiming bona fide personhood… extends only as wide and deep as my capacity to direct my own attention.
Easier said than done in a world full of distractions clamoring for market share… a world that bombards us, everyday and everywhere, with so many empty promises for happiness and salvation… with propaganda and superstitions that prime us to fear monsters that do not exist… with titillating sounds and images that make us salivate for things that are neither true nor good nor beautiful.
And so the world turns… readily preying upon our greed and anxieties… luring us from one hypnotic distraction to the next… separating us from our hearts, minds, and hard-earned money… reducing us to chasers of cheap thrills, easy answers, and booby prizes… and virtually guaranteeing that we will never ask why… because we are far too “busy” being flattered and entertained to death.
