Well, I agree that the search for philosophical knowledge can be disappointing and perhaps dangerous. Look at what happened to Socrates and to Jesus, too, I suppose. Angst-ridden and depressed social outsiders who often see the world more clearly, at the cost of their happiness or sanity, can be persecuted for threatening the social order that rests on useful fictions.

Earlier societies gave such outsiders roles as shamans or monks. We have our starving artists and YouTube prophets, but because of neoliberalism we don’t give them much credit. We trust in advertisements and corporations to tell us how to live, because we worship money. How could we do otherwise, since the super-wealthy actually live like gods?