[grownseed]

More generally speaking, I think the problem has to do with how we tend to view "things", how we get attached to them and how we forget why we have those things in the first place. Assuming that nearly everything man-made is a tool (be it a hammer, religion, politics, the economy or even art), most of the things we make have a purpose. I think the problem is that not everybody gets the purpose of those tools as clearly as others, sometimes to the point where the purpose no longer matters and the tool becomes an end in itself.

What I'm trying to say is that we tend to glorify the tools themselves, despite their potential flaws or inadequacies. We forget that we made those tools to make certain tasks simpler, or more enjoyable, with (hopefully) the ultimate goal of being generally happier. In my opinion, a good example of this is the monetary system, where some people hellbent on making as much money as possible end up living miserable lives.

By shifting the emotional attachment from being happy (by yourself and socially) to the thing that helps bring happiness ("diminished substitutes"), we start valuing the tool for its apparent value rather than its intrinsic one. It becomes the "chasing the dragon" philosophy of life ; we create a dependency, or even an addiction, where there doesn't need to be one in the first place. We focus so narrowly on the means that we forget the end.