We don’t really know why we are here. Progressively, we are turning to substances to make us feel better. Where has all the fun in life gone? Cultures are being eroded; society is descending into oblivion; we have become a runaway train, hurtling down the road of Time and impossible to stop.
Just the tip of an (rapidly melting) iceberg?
Stuck in the midst of this are you and me. We are suffering because of what is happening around us. In short, society, as we know it, is not working properly. It is failing. It is letting us down and it is slowly but surely destroying us.
Think about what you perceive would make you happier. A bigger car? A better job (or just a job)? Perhaps a holiday in the sun. Maybe, just maybe….. a youthful, good-looking significant other, or even just a lot of money in the bank. Typically, these are the things we perceive will make us feel better; help us live a happier life. We tell ourselves that, if we were to win a lot of money, our lives would be better. In some respects, perhaps they would, although only insofar as that the money would shield us from the effects of poverty or, at least, not having as much wealth as we are encouraged to believe we ought to have.
Here, we have one of the fundamental problems with our society – and our ethos – today; nobody is ever satisfied with what they have. If you own a house, you are encouraged to want a bigger one. You should have a new car every 3 years. This way, the economy and industry and business can keep growing and we can keep consuming more, bringing more wealth. As with all good things it is starting to come to an end – and what an end!
In the meantime, the number of different species on the planet is in serious decline. The environment is littered with our discarded waste, areas of beauty and holiday destinations are becoming oases surrounded by cities, connected by roads and industrial complexes, shopping centres and housing estates. Virtually every part of the globe has been mapped, explored and plundered, people are progressively living in urban concrete towers, with little or no access to space to roam, instead we are encouraged to exercise and relax in an unreal world of gymnasiums, cinemas and home entertainment systems.
It is a dismal picture. It is the very tip of the iceberg, because to fully study the human phenomenon would take more time than you or I have in these articles.
In short, the human race is not working. It is failing to provide the fundamentals of life – not just in the food we consume – but the happiness and contentment our lives so desperately need.
We are increasingly isolated and lonely, because of the dramatic changes our lives have gone through over the past 100 years. Whilst we have more freedom than ever before, this is helping to deconstruct the once close-knit society that existed. However, just as a prisoner seeks freedom, the human race struggled to free itself from some of the choking restrictions placed upon it, by often intransigent and narrow-minded authoritarians.
Things can only get better?
On a par with the economic situation, what we have failed to do is moderate! We have allowed our society to weaken, because we seem incapable of reaching compromises and allowing ourselves to be ordered and to grow, but without too much – or too little – control.
We are miserable because of things that happened to us and things that are happening to us. It is because, as a society, we are rearing our next generations wrongly. We have no standard, which will allow freedom whilst instilling discipline – self discipline. We bully, control, manipulate, misinform, scare and sometimes just ignore our young.
Every lonely, despondent and unhappy person has suffered in some way in their past. Either the breakup of an important relationship, the loss of friends or family or even health issues (physical and psychological). It is what makes us the people we are. However, we can take control of our lives, by understanding, trusting, communicating and changing. It will only be through a better understanding – as well as the will to change – that we will be able to live as whole human beings, casting off whatever chains us to loneliness and misery.
Take a look around; take a good look. Dispense with prejudice and ignorance. See the reality of what is happening. Think, honestly, about what would really make you happy and take away the misery from your life. It isn’t all that difficult to determine, but attaining it is a different thing altogether.
Am I wrong?
Jesus fucking Christ!!!
I am on this website to help me with my severe depression and this is the kind of thing that I find? This is so depressing and pessimistic!!!
Why is this guy posting articles here?
We’re sorry you find this particular piece too pessimistic. We try to cover all aspects of life and the human condition on this site, so we also have a wide range of humourous and light hearted articles alongside the more serious. Take a look at our regular Olympics blog or Chris Sav cartoons about the exploits of ‘Disappointman’.
I do not post articles here. I write them and, if they are accepted, they are published by the editor. If the truth is pessimistic, perhaps it needs to “kick start” us into changing things. That is the whole point of my article. It is also an attempt to answer why it is we find ourselves depressed and lonely. CALM give an extremely balanced view on things. They publish articles that are witty and also more serious and cover a whole range of different subjects; it’s a bit like life, really. Perhaps you might care to “put pen to paper” and write about your own situation; how you feel and why you feel the way you do. It is great therapy and often people benefit from the experiences of others. However, I would advise a degree of caution: someone out there might just find it too depressing and pessimistic and you might be around to read their unfortunate comments!
Well, I don’t have much except both articles roundly summed up what’s wrong with us. It’s not pessimistic to state the truth and it’s encouraging to others who read this and also feel this way – they are not alone in worrying.
Thanks for the good read, Graham. Peace.
I thought long and hard, before writing this article. It took me roughly a month to actually write it, although it has taken me many years of thought, observation and also criticism from others, in order to be able, at last, to write something coherent about what I have seen. I had to compress years of understanding and experience into essentially very few pages, because I wanted to see how it would be received by real people in real situations. It is, of course, a total over-simplification of the facts, but I hope it, at least, gives the subject the foothold I believe it deserves. Perhaps, if I can summon up the courage and also the willpower, I shall write a book about it.
Thanks for your kind consideration and thoughtful comments. I am glad it has invoked debate – both negative and positive.
Writing this has given me a feeling of optimism because it has started people thinking. That is what I hoped it would achieve.
Peace to you and everyone, EmptySkies.
My take on this is at the age of 38 I decided I had had enough of married life working 3 jobs with Lloyds Bank East Grinstead and a full time teaching career and helping run 2 symphony orchestras it wasnt until O& M told me I had been working a 2.5 day per day that I just hated my work in the Bank
I had no help just determination to show these cheap evil guttersnipes what I thought of them I started looking for work NOTHING I lost my home my family and my work.
The underlying aspect of these suicides seems to me to be loss of self worth.
EVERYONE PLEASE READ THIS.
YOU ARE WORTH FAR MORE TO OTHERS SO PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE WORTH SO MUCH EVERYTHING INDEED TO YOURSELF.
Talk to your friends talk to strangers TALK TALK TALK you will be enriched by this process.
I was taken on by an IFA who screwed me on my commission I worked for 16 hour 6 days a week.
I was good at my unpaid work got fit ran everywhere eventually I left and found happiness just before I was about to do that final revenge on myself I found happiness after 16 years of ignoring my difficulties
Be a coward dont kill yourself be angry dont let anyone tell you that you are worthless because IT IS NEVER TRUE.