We accept substitutes all the time, just to keep ourselves going. We substitute a glass of wine for a feeling of inner calm, we substitute pornography for a fulfilling sex life, we substitute the novelty of daily media for personal growth, we substitute poignant televisual entertainments for meaningful long-term relationships.
If you start to look closely enough, you have to wonder what purpose that chocolate bar serves, what those extra hours at the office are for, what those numbers in your checking account add up to, really. Is power a substitute for love? Is money a substitute for happiness? Is happiness based on hedonism a substitute for the more meaningful happiness that comes from helping others?
But we need our substitutes to get through the day, a day littered with reminders that we don't have everything we want. Or at least, we tell ourselves that story, as a substitute for really knowing what we want in the first place.
Them thar hills
