Authentic political action reduces the need for escapist doubles

Evidence

Something else changes, too: when our actions begin to integrate with our beliefs, when we are doing some of the work that we know needs to be done, we have less need for the various doubles our culture offers up disguised as a good life. The allure of disappearing into our digital avatars wanes—whether Bannon’s idea of Ajax embodying himself in real life or the various glowing influencers performing themselves into the ether. As Marx said of religion, doubles are our opiates; we have less need for them when there is less pain and dissonance to escape. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 1090

Categorization

• XREF: Inverts the earlier Mirror World thesis — doubles as opiates for metabolized grievances; if the movement itself metabolizes the grievance, the Mirror World’s pull weakens. Cross-references Klein’s own Marx citation in earlier chapters. — connects to: Political hope can lift personal mood and restore creative capacity
• APHORISMS: ‘Doubles are our opiates; we have less need for them when there is less pain and dissonance to escape’ reads as genuine life-wisdom about the cure for self-alienation.