>I'm beginning to think it's all a "Death of God" thing; we still haven't found a non-religious meaning for existence so we just focus on getting the high score

>I'm beginning to think it's all a "Death of God" thing; we still haven't found a non-religious meaning for existence so we just focus on getting the high score. Actually, it's the opposite - this relentless capitalist grind peculiar to American society has its origins in the Protestant work ethic - the belief that capitalism is a divine expression of God's will, that physical labor is the religious meaning of existence (at least for the working class) and that poverty and wealth are the result of moral vice or virtue, respectively. It's the same perverse intersection of Christianity and Capitalism that created prosperity theology. And the fear and hatred of government interventionism often derided as "godless socialism" which prevents the US from installing any real social safety nets or nationalized healthcare, out of the belief that suffering is inherently noble and the poor are inherently lazy is also rooted in the same religious belief.