The Sidewalk is the SCRIPT’s paycheck-to-paycheck, pay-for-it-later plan, promising happiness through consumption, both material acquisition and hyperrealistic assimilation. In return for temporary, short-lived comfort—the financed car, the vacation to Tahiti, the trendy wardrobe, the nights on the town in the VIP section—the future is forsaken for fleeting thrills, which must be repaid tomorrow by longer lurches of pain. The Sidewalk is much like that old drinking quote: “When you drink more than you should, you’re just borrowing happiness from tomorrow.” Unfortunately, “tomorrow” is
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