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I think many of us probably tend to think that we humans are fundamentally rational beings and keep our feelings and emotions in check most of the time. I'm not so sure: I think we are at the mercy of our emotions more than we think: Of course, if we were always slaves to reason, and never listened to our emotions, we would become like robots - less human and unable to excel at or appreciate art and entertainment - unable to have fun.

When I look around me, I think the world is crazy - maybe it's an age thing...or perhaps my expectations are too high...but I can't help feeling that society as a whole is falling under the spell of increasingly insane dogmas - and I'm not just talking about fundamentalist religious dogmas - I'm also talking about fundamentalist political and economic dogmas that seem to control our lives whether we like it or not.
Many of these dogmas still persist even after they have demonstrably failed to benefit most people. They of course, benefit the elite who promote these dogmas.

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Under the dogma of the so-called Free Market Capitalism, only the rich have become better off with no evidence of a "trickle down" effect to help the poor. However, research by the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) has shown that there is powerful evidence that developed countries with a smaller gap between rich and poor have happier, more stable and harmonious societies.

Big business and market forces don't just control our lives economically: they also dictate the politics and the pace of our lives: As a result, many of us seem too busy, too wound up and stressed but we don’t recognize the fact - or we’re in denial. Maybe we don’t like to admit that we suffer from stress. I think stress is like a dependency drug and we get withdrawal symptoms if we try to get rid of it - so we forget how to relax: We have this mad obsession with targets - targets that are superficial and simplistic - they look good on paper but often only serve to tick boxes that don't relate to the real world.

This crazy society is too busy and complex now: too clogged up, too much chaos, too much going on but going nowhere. It’s as if we can’t bear the sound of silence and so we have to fill that void with anything – anything so that we don’t have to face up to our inadequacies – so we don’t have to look into that black abyss and confront our innermost doubts and fears. We don’t have enough time to reflect and examine our lives or who we really are or who we want to be. Maybe we need to step back and see what’s really happening. Many of us search for identity and yet still choose to follow the crowd. As the great philosopher, Socrates once said: ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’.
 

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