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It used to be said that America's young lacked a ritual to mark the start of their adult lives. They ought to be sent on vision quests or flogged with holy reeds, we declared--some gesture to symbolize that childhood was over. But thanks to the triumph of the market and all its values in recent years, this problem has been solved. Americans now have a new rite of passage: selling out.

For centuries after Judas took his silver pieces for betraying the better man, then hanged himself in shame, selling out was viewed as evil. People did it all the time, of course, but extolled a higher ideal--and were quick to vilify anyone else who fell short. With the economy on a mad run these days and most Americans feeling flush, attitudes have changed. The rewards are now so high it's often seen as foolish, even pathological, to resist. Dreaded no more, selling out has become the ultimate career goal, the universally desired destiny.

Or so it is packaged. Everywhere you look there's a story about the talented young, their minds and bodies honed by perfect diets and top-notch schools, eager to trade their assets to the highest bidder. If by chance you possess a gift that someone wants to buy--a head for figures, perhaps, or just your figure, period--the message is clear. By all means, child, sell!

The sale itself can be a spectacular thing, as in the case of spies and traitors. More often it's an insidious process that can leave us numb to the moral horrors we commit as calmly as we brush our teeth. By far the most common form of selling out is the quiet betrayal of our selves, the squelching of the inner voice that tells you what you want from life, along with what you will (and won't) do to get it. To betray yourself is to be nagged by the fear that the life you're living may actually be someone else's.