synthetic Vs. authentic

i went though this phase of writing down odd phrases i thought of, since i finished my quote of the day book at the end of university. (that seemed fitting since i started it almost the day after i went).

and one of them was 'synthetic love and synthetic happiness'.

people pretend and have meaningless encounters with people in bars and parties and clubs that they don't know, and people also drink and take drugs. They are trying to cover or hide the lack of authentic love or happiness with an act and pretend emotions or with a drug that elicits synthetic feelings. its like that Radiohead song "it looks like the real thing, it tastes like the real thing, my fake plastic love". I think that is what that song is about, drugs and inadequate or empty relationships can make you feel happy , the feeling can even be the same as genuine or authentic happiness, but it is ultimately and unfortunately fake and synthetically orchestrated and ultimately meaningless. There are two levels, with acting you don't believe you actually have the feeling, but with drugs you genuinely believe that the feeling is real. the act and the drug induced feeling are often intertwined though, due to the main places to take drugs being clubs and bars and parties where these meaningless encounters with strangers tend to occur.

You end up feeling lower when the drug wears off than you did from the outset due to the behaviour taking drugs encourages. and its a shame. but that isn't going to stop people because the 'fake happiness' MAY BE FAKE BUT STILL FEELS REALLY GOOD! but who wants the fake version of the real thing, however close it seems to resemble the authentic version.

I suppose there can be no substitute for authentic love and authentic happiness. But in the pursuit of happiness the synthetic will sometimes have to do.