The Bubble Blowers have created an American Idolatry ethos. They've taken advantage of the Protestant Work-ethic and used it to fill their coffers and suck the souls of a lot of Americans.
How'd that happen? In a nutshell - deregulation across the board and Gordon Gekko-envy.
The Bubble Blowers' ethos says: worship money, worship material items, worship those who attain fame, fortune and status ... and all this might be yours and while you try to get it by working longer hours, 2 or 3 jobs, and sacrificing your health, families and communities, you can at least attain it vicariously by modeling your lives after the people who are clearly better than you and who you clearly want to be - just open your wallets and we will let you inside the Bubble with all the fortunate ones like us ... inside the Bubble that can make your dreams come true, or not, we don't really care, just as long as you fork over the dough.
Those "successful" ones will sprinkle down their fairy dust in the form of hit songs, World Series winning home runs, by winning the final rose, making the next gotta have App and riding a Facebook buyout to millions, climbing the corporate ladder to the corner office, buying a bigger house and car than you, or grabbing the attention of the pop-pop-paparazzi to dazzle and scintillate you ... all so that you can imagine one day being one of them and not the miserable puke that you are. And if you don't like it, you're fired!
Come, join us on the Bubble ride to riches, to castles in the sky, where the price of admission is only a gamble - heads I win, tails you lose; you gamble your health, security, stability, happiness for a chance to have it all, for a chance to be me and my friends, but you also take the health, security, stability, happiness of so many others - but that's the deal and besides, why would you care about those worthless talentless takers anyways?
Pay no mind either as the world spins off its axis thanks to our Bubble Blowing Machine blowing a world full of magical dreams... dreams that infect people with anxiety, fear, confusion, hate, hope, depression, greed ... a machine that ultimately makes us all end up like a bunch of chickens with our heads cut off, wondering what the hell has happened and yelling: "You're CRAZY!" ... no, "You're CRAZY!"
The adage, too much of anything can be bad for you, has never applied so aptly than it does to the Bubble World of the past 30 years.
The cure is simple - take the focus off Wall St. and refocus on Main St.