The image of the object overshadows the object itself. The grand beard receives all the attention and hides the gaunt chin beneath. This is the action of vanity; the force that usurps sincerity and covers it with the sparkles of what is make-believe. This epoch, marked by populations so large that they cannot even be fathomed, creates conditions rife for compromising a man’s character for the sake of ever more assured prosperity. Left unchecked, groups congregate and reinforce corrupt values that center around things possessing no inherent worth. The game of vanity is all about hoarding praise and profits. Its whispers circle like rabid rats within one’s mind, incessantly comparing the merits of oneself with that of others — concerned always with its position amidst the ranks of the pyramidal herd. The objective is not about right action but of behaving in such a way as to always meet with the approval of others. The center of this perversion in one’s psychology is symbolic to that of a black hole, and the nature of its being is to consume the utmost attention supplied by society. Such a man unwittingly lives his life avoiding the plain fact that what he has become is a growing void of nothingness, and the inevitable time will come to pass when his nature swallows itself into oblivion.