What the Hell is Moloch?

What sphinx of cement and aluminium bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?

Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!

Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!

Howl, Allen Ginsberg

Moloch is a metaphor.

Moloch is the metaphorical god of finite games, unhealthy competition and coordination failure.

Moloch is an unseen force, an emergent property of the complex system we create between all our interactions as human beings.

Moloch is the embodiment of the tragic and inexorable logic of multipolar traps, where entities acting in their own self-interest lead to collectively detrimental outcomes.

When individuals striving for social approval increasingly depend on beauty filters to meet unrealistic beauty standards, propagating insecurities and distorting self-perception, that is Moloch.

When spectators at sporting events stand to gain a better view, compelling those behind them to do the same and collectively obstructing the view for everyone, diminishing the experience for all, that is Moloch.