“But for the present age, which prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the
original, representation to reality, appearance to essence . . . truth is considered
profane, and only illusion is sacred. Sacredness is in fact held to be enhanced in
proportion as truth decreases and illusion increases, so that the highest degree of
illusion comes to be the highest degree of sacredness.”
—Feuerbach, Preface to the second edition of The Essence of Christianity
(Preface too to "the Society of the Spectacle" by Guy Debord)