Shattering the Ego

 Q:

The ego has been falsely and unjustly accused of being the source of all the unsavory aspects of man.  And even of preventing man from rising above himself in this "god forsaken existence" into some blended oneness existing in some unknown medium of bliss.

A:
I would like to add to this part.

The point of Eastern philosophies is not to "destroy", or "getting rid" of the ego. The ego is a tool to interact with the material world. The point is to not identify with the ego construction. Meditation helps doing exactly that. 
What happens when you dis-identify with the ego? You learn that the outer ego is not who you are. You learn that it is only a part of the real YOU. The real problem is believing that the outer ego is all you are. 

"For are you aware that as soon as you obliterate one ego another will arise?"
What makes you believe that? 
You don't obliterate anything. You simply break the tyranny that the ego holds on you, telling you "you are this and that and that's all you are", and you make your true identity shine through. The outer ego is recognized as what it is: a tool, a useful construction. The usefulness of this construction depends on the beliefs it is built upon, like you always say. 

"And even of preventing man from rising above himself in this "god forsaken existence" into some blended oneness existing in some unknown medium of bliss."

If the outer ego is left unchecked and you identify with it, the result is that you don't see the connection you have with the inner world and thus don't see that the worldly personality is only the tip of the iceberg. Dis-identifying with the outer ego is therefore necessary to blend with the Oneness, which brings bliss. Basically, you re-identify with something bigger, deeper and more true than before.

This is what I tried to show with my latest drawing. The outer ego is only the tip of the iceberg. The subconscious is under the waterline and is rarely explored. If it were, it would become obvious that there is much more to us than what we can see on the surface, and we would recognize that we and everything is connected.
Meditation helps in this process of recognition; cracks open the silver screen upon which our lives seem to play out and exposes the underlying forces from which everything arises.