How Our Society Breeds Anxiety, Depression and Dysfunction

[marions ghost]

14. What a statement about our society-- that a quarter

of all women in their prime take anti-depressants. I don't blame them but I wish they didn't have to.

I think our society does make people depressed. Imagine what it would be like to live in a country where people didn't have to fear for basic needs. When you are always operating out of a sense of lack, out of fear and insecurity--you WILL be depressed. It is hard to think good thoughts about our children's future. It is hard to go through a single day without some worry about economics or what the evildoers in business and government are doing. It is depressing to see the extent of environmental degradation and feel powerless to stop it. It is depressing to see the American war machine operating 24/7. It is hard to witness gun violence day in, day out. It is depressing to realize that we are not building for the future, that we are mired in the past.

What if we could feel we live in a forward looking place, a country we could be proud of, where we are all pulling together for the common good? Can we even imagine that?

We must try, because it's going to be up to us to create it.