Strip Malls

Strip malls mark the coming of The End. I don’t predate strip malls. I’ve never known life without them, but that doesn’t make them sit any better with me. People weren’t meant to live that way. Strip malls eat your soul. They’re like that cheap hotel soap which dries out your skin. It gets the job done, but it’s uncomfortable and leaves you feeling tight and dried out. Strip malls represent our bankruptcy of standards. Americans will take quantity over quality, ten times out of ten. Content doesn’t matter. Culture doesn’t matter. Meaning doesn’t matter. Atmosphere, ambiance, and character don’t matter. Volume does. Period. All we’ve got is massive, vapid appetite. Anything will do, as long as we have a lot of it, more than anybody else. It’s a reckless nihilism that’s eventually going to have lethal consequences for us and everybody else who inhabits the planet.