A Pantomime of Reality: Beware the New Unreligion

‘There’s a reason that our traditional institutions and religions are crumbling; it’s because they are no longer relevant!’

Bill Hicks

It is clear for any visitor to see that there is a major cultural and religious clash being played out within and around the borders of Lebanon; Christian icons dot the local landscape whilst mosques and churches compete for grandeur in her cities. Arab Christians mingle freely with Caucasian Muslims, the ‘Army of God’ prepares for war with the Zionist behemoth on its southern flank whilst the Lebanese government forever lurches from crisis to crisis. It is no wonder that the youth of Lebanon is questioning the values of its older generations.

Lebanese youth must beware the void though. The new unreligion of the western world is shooting its roots into Lebanese society faster than anywhere I’ve ever seen before; her highways, the veins of the country, are littered with billboards appealing to the narcissism of the new consumption generation. The beaches of Beirut are polluted by steroid-pumped egos that strut and flex their grotesque forms in a bizarre ritual of worship to themselves. Dolly-bird women caked in their war paint sit like shop mannequins in the passenger seats of absurdly expensive look-at-me vehicles…

The transparent irrelevance of the world’s modern institutions and religions has left self-worshipping consumption as the new unreligion being promoted by our corporate slave-masters; we are becoming a parody of ourselves, a hollow pantomime of reality, as we fall into this trap of spiritual emptiness and synthetic aestheticism.

So, how many anarchists does it take to change a light bulb? None, the light bulb must change itself.