the dregs

In the Terma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, this period is called Dü Tha, or the Age of Dregs, and during this time it was predicted that people would have lost their spiritual moorings and be attracted to illusory ways of creating happiness.

-- Paul Hawken, Paul Hawken, Bill McKibben on Blessed Unrest and Deep Economics, (interview by Jon Lebkowsky, Worldchanging.com)

Oh, I know, it's nothing new. The marketing cretins of Madison Avenue long ago caught onto the not-exactly-innovative scheme of sucking all joy from a given cultural phenomenon or movement or honest spiritual practice, from yoga to skater culture to surf life to rap, and then co-opting it and rebranding it and injecting it with sugar and corn syrup and caffeine and sex and 5,000 silly Swarovski crystals then selling it right back to you as a gold-flaked diamond-studded $25 energy drink. Yawn.

-- Mark Morford, Let us get drunk and meditate (SF Gate)