Jamal Awil

← Doppelganger

Aligned action reduces our need for escapist digital doubles. [causal]

Something else changes, too: when our actions begin to integrate with our beliefs, when we are doing some of the work that we know needs to be done, we have less need for the various doubles our culture offers up disguised as a good life. The allure of disappearing into our digital avatars wanes—whether Bannon's idea of Ajax embodying himself in real life or the various glowing influencers performing themselves into the ether. As Marx said of religion, doubles are our opiates; we have less need for them when there is less pain and dissonance to escape.

XREF: Echoes the author's earlier theme on Bannon and digital avatars; connects to Marx's opiate-of-the-masses framing.

Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, loc. 1090