The Lost Souls

From what I see, not many can be rescued. Not that I want to, I don't play god and I don't know how. And not that they want to be rescued either. When that mental veneer of safety is lost, some will lose that ability to live and exist and there may just be a form of mental collapse.

Their inflated self-importance, their world of 'Me Me Me', will vanish. The glittering skyscraper will suddenly be revealed to be a crumbling hovel.

Of course, there are others while they live in the real world, find comfort and safety in numbers. Still, it will not do to mention names or do character sketches online. Heh.

Stanislaw Lem, in my opinion, easily the greatest science fiction writer of the 20th century, described in 'The Futurological Congress' a progressive world of the future where illusions are maintained for a level of comfort while Philip K. Dick described another in 'Time out of Joint' where certain purposes were met while this world was self-perpetuated. These virtual worlds do not only exist in science fiction.

Then again, it will do well if some of the lost were to read Franz Kafka's 'The Trial' or 'The Castle', perhaps, some day, illumination will come for them.