"This world - with its ideas, principles, rules, and in general, with all its order, which has been elevated to the status of an unalterable law - lays its heavy, dominating hand upon all its children. Consequently none of them even dares to think about rising up against it or spurning its power and authority. Everybody holds it in reverence, and with some timidity, adheres to its rules. Their breach is considered to be a criminal offense. The world is not a person, but its spirit somehow permeates the earth. This spirit influences us and binds us as with bonds. Obviously its power and authority are created by our thought; they are imaginary, not real or physical. Consequently, we need only to dispel this imaginary authority of the world, and the possibility of sobering from its charms will be near to us.
"God's providential care for us acts in four distinct ways to dispel the illusions of this world" (St. Theophan the Recluse, Turning the Heart to God, p. 28; published separately, this is the second part of The Path to Salvation).
First, God gives us nature. He also gives us the Church, which reveals the next world to us and teaches us how to contemplate the visible works of God in the here and now.
Second, God provides us examples of people who are satisfied with prayer, contemplation, and the vision of God. These are people who are not satisfied with the "amusements" and "reassurances" of the world.
Third, God exposes the "powerful" and the "exalted" as frauds when we witness their downfall.
Fourth, God allows the world disappoint us, so we understand that "fame, honor, power, riches and amusements" are a "deception" that will not satisfy our deepest longing.
God has showed you these things. Will you pay attention to what you have seen? Or will you choose to continue to participate in the lie?