Dear Luv Doc,
Do you ever sense you might be vicariously observing the lives of men who have no purpose, subconsciously suffering that as a form of malady, throwing in for urban activities, few of which can really fulfill an empty core? In such a state there is much to contemplate for those meeting life stoically, soberly and with a respect for spiritual responsibilities and experiences. Did you grasp the shallowness displayed by advertisers around the ball game the other evening, showing us people seemingly drugged and accepting of gratingly mundane forgettable existences? A parade of poorly done papier mâché. It may be true – there may be a war being waged for our souls today – some offer rescue, others would flush us away. Meanwhile, search ceaselessly for the meanings in life, and the challenges in discerning laughable futile time eating nonsense from that which strengthens the souls of men and women. Build and fortify the ethical man and woman in us – our “leaders” are being exposed. In some ways I’m grateful for the blatant criminality possessing our system now – grateful for the wake-up call splashing in our faces. Nobody can miss it. Get off the merry-go-round of useless skills and posturing. Grab a hammer, and hit a nail or two.
– JK
Before I leap into this quagmire, I feel compelled to say I am not quite sure what you mean by “vicariously observing.” I have done plenty of things vicariously … skydiving for instance … though I can’t say how vicarious the experience actually was because I didn’t shit myself, which, were I to skydive – and by that I mean bedragged out of an airplane strapped to the back of someone else with actual skydiving experience – I am pretty certain I would spontaneously evacuate my bowels. Maybe I should treat any skydiving experience, whether real or vicarious, as if it were a colonoscopy. I always get a little lightheaded after a good hunger fast, so I would probably pass out and miss the entire experience.
Observing, however, is something I can’t say I have ever done vicariously. I am not even sure it’s possible. Observing is an actual activity, and a subjective one at that, so to observe something vicariously would be an abandonment of that subjectivity and more of a foray into imagining what someone is thinking about the thing they are observing. If I may speak for you, I don’t think that’s what you’re saying. I think you were asking if I observe the lives of people who have no purpose … whose lives are empty and meaningless. Let me answer your question: Yes. Also, you asked if I grasped the shallowness of advertisers around the ball game the other evening. Given the time at which I received this email, I assume you are referring to the Knicks’ NBA Finals victory. Yes, I did, but to be clear, I expect shallowness from advertisements during sporting events. I expect shallowness from all advertising in general, and absolute imbecility from ads by Republican office-seekers in Texas. After experiencing so much success in the last 30 or so years using that approach, it’s going to be really hard to get them off that tit, so we might as well make some Jiffy Pop® and enjoy Chip Roy’s quixotic battle against Sharia law.
Speaking of laughable, futile, time-eating nonsense, I may use that as the subtitle to this advice column. I can truly think of no better description. Hopefully I hit that trifecta every week, but if it has to be one out of three, I choose laughable. If my nonsense somehow happens to “build and fortify the ethical man and woman in us” (and between you and me, I feel like there are probably even more genders in each of us as well), then I will count that as a happy bonus.
Now … about this merry-go-round of useless skills and posturing: I will second your concern for the seeming fatuousness of modern society. All the fame-whoring, like-chasing, jump-photoing, looksmaxxing bullshit gets really tiresome, and it’s particularly useless when you need some help changing a tire, or digging a trench. That said, we may very well be on the verge of an era where jobs that require competency and skill (like swinging a hammer) are all handled by machines. Someday our entire day might be spent sitting around dreaming up fatuous shit to keep us entertained. Maybe that day is now, but there are six or seven hundred million malnourished people on the globe who would argue otherwise, so maybe not a hammer but a hoe.
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This article appears in July 10 • 2026.
