“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”—Aristotle
I don’t want to add anxiety to the life of anyone—Ever. And this is especially true for those who care enough to take time out of your day to read my articles and listen to my podcasts. But I follow where the truth leads, even when the destination makes me uncomfortable.
So if an exposé on the corruption and sociopathy that rules our world will bring you stress that you’d rather avoid, please skip this article, as it takes a hard look at present day dystopia.
For those who would like to follow me down these rabbit holes—Onward, into the abyss.
Things are so bad in the world right now, on so many levels, that I figured I’d either scream into the void for a few hours, or write about it. I chose the latter because my voice is a bit hoarse from screaming into the void yesterday.
I’m lucky—Over the years I’ve found that listening to my patients has never steered me wrong. They’ve not only been an inspiration, but an endless source of education. And at no time in the past have I ever seen them so distressed as I have over the last 12 months—The topic comes up in conversation virtually every day. Even folks I’ve known for years, who’ve been consistently happy, are now clearly troubled.
I realize that there’s something visceral and intuitive to my reaction of how my patients are feeling. And although I try to remain ever the objective scientist, I can’t help feeling—To my core, in a way that circumvents reason—That things are very, very wrong.
This left me uncomfortable, hence the origin of this article. Due to my nearly-obsessive pursuit of logic—Did I ever mention that one of my nicknames in high school was Mr. Spock? Yes, I was that cool—I had to figure out why I feel this way, and why I feel it so strongly.
So the following is an attempt to do just that—It’s my effort to explore some existential issues in a cogent, linear fashion—Letting my slowpoke analytical side catch up with my sometimes way-too-nimble intuitive other half. I had to retrace my steps to make sure that I wasn’t wildly off-base, chasing a random gut instinct. And after doing this, I’m happy-ish to report, that even though I’m horrified at what I’ve researched, I do feel more comfortable in my skin, knowing that I’ve not been barking up the wrong tree, following a baseless hunch.
When I began this process, the first little voice in my head that I heard was the one that’s always trying to convince me that I’m over-reacting when my intuition is screaming and I dare to listen, even a little bit—
“Well of course there’s something very wrong. There’s a pandemic, haven’t you heard?! Of course your patients are stressed. The whole world is stressed. Pandemics are terrifying. Duh.”
If only it were that simple.
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