With respect to your second point, I am in full agreement.<p>Not only do I routinely see right through the benign bullshit designed to keep most people fat and happy, I also often see past the second layer designed to let the people who see past the first layer think that they can actually &quot;fix&quot; anything.<p>Without the illusions, I&#x27;m just a terrified ant scurrying around in a world filled with uncaring stomping boots and sadistic kids with magnifying glasses.<p>Being intelligent and ethical is a great advantage in the secondary mythic version of life, but it seems in the real, un-glamoured world, the only quality that has value is the ability to excise essential bits of your own humanity and trade them away for power.  Intelligence also helps there, obviously, but without principles, the smartest person becomes the worst monster of them all.