As always Theodore Dalrymple articulates our cultural dis-ease:
“No age is golden to those who live in it, and it is not
often in human history that men are more grateful for progress than worried by
current imperfections.
Even
so, our current age seems exceptional in the peculiarity of its unease. Never
in human history have people lived such long and pain-free lives; never have so
many people, and so high proportion of people , had such freedom to choose how
to live, what goals to pursue, and how to divert themselves. On the other hand,
never have so many people felt anxious and depressed, and resorted to pills to
ease their distress. Mankind has laboured long and hard to produce a cornucopia
for itself, only to discover that the cornucopia does not bring the happiness
expected, but only a different kind of anxiety.”
No comments:
Post a Comment