After recently beginning a collection of Henry David Thoreau’s essays, I was discussing with my fiancé how horrified he would surely be if he could see what we have become in 2024. I don’t think there can be any doubt of that, but later on I was thinking further, and so I ask, is there any philosophically minded, forward thinking person from the past who wouldn’t be horrified by 2024? I can’t imagine one. Beyond that, is there anyone who wouldn’t be horrified? The only thing to come to mind was con-men – I fully believe all the con-men of all the errors of history would gladly welcome the hellscape of a diseased society that we’ve set up in 2024 America.

I can’t turn on the TV, open the newspaper, open the Internet, drive on the highway, turn on the radio, or really do much of anything without someone trying to convince me my life would be much better (and I much happier) if I only purchased whatever they’re selling that I invariably don’t need.

We name our vehicles Expedition, Pathfinder, Armada, Tundra, and other “powerful” names, often related to nature/exploration in some way, while the ones that precisely carry these names are the largest and most wasteful, further deteriorating our environment. It’s a scam. Modern American digital age capitalism is a scam, a con, a grift. What used to be small pockets of localized con artists can now, and readily do, turn to social media and the Internet to scam the over-caffeinated, undernourished, under slept, overweight among us – i.e. the great majority of Americans.

Meanwhile, we hold up “miracle” drugs and technology that promise to solve our ills, conveniently omitting the fact that most of these ills are the direct or indirect byproduct of our diseased culture. But instead of striking at the roots we hit out at the branches – again, because there’s money to be made. More scams, more smoke and mirrors, more sad jokes played on a populace that readily accepts and believes that it’s always the other guys fault and that if I just own enough things I won’t be sad, I will be praised, and I’ll never, ever have to think about my own impending death.

Mr. Thoreau, yes, you’d be horrified, but if there’s any possible cosmological way, please come back, we need you more than ever. America needs you more than ever, nature needs you more than ever – I need you more than ever.