Depressing statistics...

...but hardly surprising ones revealed last week about the record number of prescriptions for anti-depressants in Britain. It's a true sign of our times when several million people become reliant on Prozac and Seroxtat just to plough through their lives. It's the sad trend that's accompanying this individualistic, cut-throat capitalist society we're shoehorning all of our human capabilities into. And don't make the mistake of assuming the people receiving these thirty-one million prescriptions are just the outcasts who've failed to cut the mustard and so have withdrawn themselves to sit behind misty window panes, repeatedly punching themselves in the pancreas. Countless people (no stats here by the way, because I haven't counted, hence it being countless) function 'normally' on these things. People who are participators in the rat race are often the ones who need them most. 'Brutality is needed in capitalist society'... but failing that, there's always Prozac. It's one of the most damning indictments on the way humans operate that so many people are reliant on chemical aids to get through it. 'Success' in this world makes you more prosperous, more comfortable, but not necessarily any more satisfied or happy within yourself.

I think sanity is the ultimate prize we're all striving for in life - it's our only real purpose. But it's not actually that hard to master if you show some initiative and just value the right things in life. I value love (all-encompassing love, not the transient/jealous type celebrated by couples), peace, egalitarianism, and creativity. Of course, those who know me well will now be thinking I'm more into petty gambling, football, cups of tea, Bourbon Creams and Neighbours than any of the things I've just listed. But we all need our little distractions don't we.

You often have to travel through some degrees of insanity before reaching the distant, burning lights of sanity. This manifests itself in feeling misunderstood by, and disconnected from, most others in the world around you and what they value - but it's worth it. The truly sane have got the measure of their surroundings, seen them for what they are, and are going through a process of taking and leaving what they deem (a) valuable, and (b) tosh. Conversely, the ones without the objectivity to partake in such a process instead strive to just mould themselves to their culture, which requires their worst character traits to be propelled forth. All the vacuous perks that come with success in their working lives are far outweighed by a dissatisfaction - and depression - that looms in the distance. This is my coffee table philosophy written shortly before midnight on a Monday night. Please treat it as that.