The result is the empty self “that experiences a significant absence of community, tradition, and shared meaning . . . a self that embodies the absences, loneliness, and disappointments of life as a chronic, undifferentiated emotional hunger.”6 Our empty selves have been conditioned to sate that hunger with material possessions, which has created a powerful economy that gives us the illusion that we are doing well. But our inner lives are not doing well. It also hasn’t helped that political and other changes in recent decades have made it harder for people in this country to survive
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