Idols consume us (Chris Hedges)

   We are burdened by household gods, no longer made of clay, but all promising to fulfill us.  Our computer, our television, our job, our wealth, our social status, along with the brands we wear and the cars we drive, promise us contentment and inform our identity.  These household gods seem to offer well-being, health and success.  But all these gods create cults.  And all these cults circle back to us, to a dangerous self-worship fed by forces who seek to ensnare us in idolatry. 

   Idols consume us.  Only the small, mundane acts of life, of kindness for neighbors and friends and family, can save us. […]  Those who stop to care for a sick or disabled relative know this.  Sacrifice gives us life.  It frees us from idols.  But we must accept that such sacrifice can be hard and lonely.  Sacrifice for others gives life and makes community possible.  Idols … keep us from God.

--Chris Hedges, Losing Moses on the Freeway: 

The Ten Commandments in America (pp. 41-50, passim).

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