A Sick Society?

History seems to show us that civilisations go through 3 phases, the early developing phase, the mid flowering phase & the final decadent one. Living in the 21st century seems to me to be the final one. Mrs Thatcher told us that "there is no such thing as society". From then onward we in the West seem to have become more selfish, more insular, more greedy and more wasteful.

We no longer eat to live, we live to eat. When I first saw obesity in America decades ago it was so new to me I couldn't help being appalled & staring. I wondered how individuals could possibly eat so much and exercise so little & have so little love for themselves that they could allow their bodies to become so gross. Now I know that it isn't so simple. The huge multinational food companies have so adulterated our diets that we no longer know what rubbish we are putting into our mouths. People have become divorced from their food and become addicted to sugars, fats & salt.

Similarly we have become addicted to alcohol & drugs of every kind. Some people are never sated and drimk or indulge to near oblivion. Is the pain of modern life such that it can only be tolerated through a drug or alcohol induced haze? Are the pressures of 21st century life such that they can only be borne is such a state? That can't be true. We have gone through 2 earth shattering world wars without the ills of today's society. What makes us so uniquely unable to bear our lives to such an extent that many of us are like lemmings rushing off a cliff?

It seems to me we have become a dilettante society of instant gratification. We want "it" now and hang the cost, monetary or personal to us or anyone else. Worse still hang the cost to society, to the world, to the planet.

Civilisations have come and gone through the aeons & this one will too. It's just a question of when. Interestingly there are common reasons why civilisations eventually fail. One is using up natural resources for immediate gain regardless of the final cost. The Easter Island peoples died out because they cut down the last tree. We are hacking down the forest & watching ourselves do it. We are just in denial about what will happen to future generations.

I have two 5 year old grandsons, Sam & Theo. I don't want to think what they will inherit from this generation. Land wars - Water wars - Food wars. Will the lights go out? Will the motorways be still apart from the songs of birds? Will there be any birds?

Wake up world! Man is infinitely creative and inventive. But the tipping point may already be past.