Depressed in America
Published March 22, 2007
It seems like everybody is pissed off and depressed these days. When you watch TV or tune into the radio you’re exposed to ads for pills that will supposedly make your life better. Though in many cases, that isn’t true. Pills aren’t really supposed to make your life better or help you become a more confident person. They simply make your life bearable. With many lives becoming unbearable, the fact that you are bombarded with various pharmaceutical cure-alls only proves the point.
This begs an important question: why has life become so hard for many of us? Why do people feel displaced, so out of touch with reality? What kind of culture thrives on money-making industries like weight loss pills and speed dating? That said, I’m convinced that our fast-paced materialistic culture, especially here in America, leaves many people feeling out of sorts and at the end of their tethers.
The desire to work for the greater good has disappeared - replaced with a vicious greed and need for personal gain that is not only un-American but inhumane. Sure, a capitalistic society is one thing, but denying people health care if they are not insured, glorifying the dysfunction of celebrities and exploiting tragedy on cable and network news at the top of every hour is just pathetic.
I pay attention to these things because I’m 31 years old and feel totally displaced from the world around me. It’s been a lifelong battle for me. Since Day One I’ve faced my own set of unique challenges, just like all of us, and I’m losing the will to fight.
It’s not that I’m giving up. Hell no, I’m a fighter and will be till the day I die. Still, any good fighter knows when to throw in the towel, and as I write this I am seriously considering if I still have the strength to go into further rounds with the huge bureaucratic beast that is slung around my neck.
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- Depressed in America
- Published: March 22, 2007
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Culture: Society
- Writer: Brandon Daviet
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Comments on this articleComments
Brandon, I don't know that the desire for a greater good has disappeared. If you look at the surface - People magazine and Jon Stewart - it seems so. But if you look at the lives of friends, family, and co-workers, you'll probably find a lot more depth and goodness. There's a lot of volunteer work and charitable donations that you don't normally see.
I'll agree that we've become a society that brags about its vices and conceals its virtues. We're weird hypocrites. I think we're all afraid of bragging, of putting ourselves up as examples of decency, because it seems anti-democratic. Even as I write this, I know I'd never talk about the causes and good deeds I've been involved in.
Anyway, greedy industries have no power if you ignore them. We may not realize this society-wide, but we do as individuals, and the aggregate effect can be powerful.
To answer the lead in question on whether I feel depressed. No.
But I do get concerned when I look around my house and wonder how I accumulated all this stuff. I've got all sorts of stuff from different "eras" of my being. I am "Consumer Man"
I own guitars (10), madolins, basses, amps, old effects, 4 tumbadors (congas), lots of percussion stuff and that's just the stuff a currently have... I've traded/sold tons more musical stock. I have a freakin' Hammond B-3 in the garage... where mice go to die.
Books! OMG! I hate to give the books away, but I'm out of room; why not!?! I'll claim them.
Nic Nac's from 2 sets of parents, and our own. The kids are gone... and so is there stuff. I want to go Spartan, I want buddist furnishings... a smaller place in a wide open area... good gravy... Now I understand, I'm having an anxiety moment here. If I was crazy I would chainsaw the whole mess and burn it all! But I'm too "cheap" to do that. If I had to do it all over again... keeps resounding in my thoughts. I woulda, shoulda... maybe I am nuts.
I still play music, I still read, I still buy junk; When will it stop? Who will "want" all this stuff? Or, will it go into the local dump for lack of interest. Is that what it's all about? Hep me, hep me....
But seriously, all kidding aside. I really need to pare down. Yard sale... too specialized, yard sales are for old dishes and childrens clothes.
Salvation Army here I come! Look out taxman, I'm claiming it all!
TTFN!
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Why is a decent, fulfilling life so hard to obtain?
'Cause we are internally contradictory creatures. Our advanced, complex intellect and sensibility is out of synch with our ruder animal natures. Maybe after some more thousands of years of evolution, we might stop needing the pills.