by abstract nouns -democracy religion economics freedom biology sexuality orientation identity status fashion novelty literature- they don't notice what is really going on. I refer to the modern process by which the machinery of civilisation inserts a straw into the brain extracts the juices then pounds what is left to form an attitude a person a career a place in jail. How do you stop the juice being extracted from your brain? Some consider such questions a category error arguing being overwhelmed with doubt has for too long been misconstrued as evidence human beings possess a soul. Others petition the ancient prophets' God who wrote all his bestsellers millennia ago and has long since succumbed to writer's block. This has left modern humanity perplexed. We are each now a troubled mind staring out through the sockets in our endoskeleton eyes roaming like searchlights across the bumps and crevices of the world. Only the undaunted few dare look down to observe their toes hanging over the ledge below which yawns the precipice that separates life from death. This is not a sight for beginners.