Let’s tell the truth about our “system”. Let’s be honest about the prosperity we gloat about.
That phrase. Jesus used it. You don’t have to believe Him on any point of theology, but He got this much right.
“Whited sepulchres”.
Coffins, nice on the outside, but hiding the death and decay within.
That’s this world we built. Beautiful. And if it ain’t beautiful where you are, maybe a little too stinky, maybe a little too decayed, just get in the SUV, you work so hard to pay for, and find that perfect place. Take the kids, and maybe a bag of dope for toking later, as you cogitate on your beautiful life, brought to you by you and the people who own you.
We don’t have a Stalin or a Brezhnev or even a Gorbachev to lie to us about happiness. We think our system “works“. The Five Year Plans or the perestroika couldn’t fill the hole for them. General Motors or the Social Security Administration or Goldman Sachs or the World Economic Forum can’t fill the holes for us.
There ain’t enough crap in the world to fill the holes in our hearts.
Sucks, doesn’t it?
Dispatches From Dystopia 
Yes, it does. I think life was better when I was younger (I was born in 1953), but doesn’t every generation? I’m blessed to live in the South, in Arkansas, actually, and things aren’t as bad here as in the bigger cities and on the coasts. Most people are still kind, generous, and have some common sense–though we do have our share of meth heads.