A Sign of the Times

During one of my recent periodic peregrinations around the neighborhood, I was struck by a contrast all too indicative of the Endarkenment.
Shuffling down the once-prosperous main thoroughfare a few blocks to my south, immortalized in song as a vortex of affluence and vitality (however frivolous or aimless), I notice that the pedestrian traffic (other than mine) is shrinking in direct proportion to the number of occupied buildings. More "vacancy" and "for rent" signs appear in the windows of ex-shops and ex-offices with every passing week. The quantity is becoming alarming, if not quite for this jaundiced and resigned observer, then for his normal neighbors.
On my way home, however, I noticed one sign in one yard, about a block north of the commercial district, that was intact; the building it advertised was open for business. It read something like: "Psychic Spirituality."
Priorities.
As I contemplatively continued home, I considered the implications of that enterprise being one of the relatively few to survive in such hostile economic times and locales.
I realized that the same cultural milieu that brought us such hostile economic times and locales would necessarily succor such an enterprise, producing customers who would support it in lieu of productive, rational services. The economic statists and the peddlers of flimflam (from the ivory towers to the corner store) have a symbiotic relationship, which is one reason why the latter almost invariably support the former.
Look around you. Whether quietly doing business around the corner or bellowing from the rooftops, pulpits, newspapers (such as remain), magazines (see above), and Internet, unreason is everywhere.