I prefer to avoid TB's. That is to say, True Believers. People of faith. They make me edgy. I prefer the doubters; that is to say, the kind of people who ask questions. Not the ones that look for answers. Those are two very different things. I don't believe in answers. Give me an intelligent question and we might have something to talk about. Bring me your answers and I'll fall asleep. Let's be clear on that.

They say that great minds think alike. I don't know about that. It seems to me that stupid minds think pretty darned alike as well. But it is good to have a creative conversation with someone who knows how to ask questions. Stimulating. Asking questions will lead you to discuss possibilities. Looking for answers will make you form opinions. Those are two very different things. We might even say different outlooks on life.

Most people have one or more favourite issues. Something like a pet peeve. An itch that keeps coming back. A fixation. It can be just about anything; the point is that it has developed into a habitual response, a hobby-horse. I believe that the most common - and the most infantile - of the many varieties of these is the idea that all other people but yourself (and your confidentes) are stupid. But not only people, structures and objects can be stupid as well. And say nothing about the many rules and regulations we have to relate to in society every day! Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I seem to constantly run into studies and figures which suggest that Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is now the most commonly diagnosed of all diseases in the typical Western-Industrialised Nations; such as the Eurozone, Scandianavia, the UK and North America. It is tempting to draw a direct correlation between the kind of 'civilization' that we have developed - since these phenomenons are also manifesting in other highly industrialised and organised societies in South-East Asia and Japan - but this is at best a nebulous field of study and it is hard to establish any clear and irrefutable evidence.

Contrary to what many seem to believe, MDD is not about 'feeling blue' or being moody and uninspired, nor is it a question of ordinary lazyness, stubborn mindedness or antisocial unwillingness to participate in social activities; it is a consistent 'state of mind' which by the singular individual is often even perceived as 'normal': This is it. This is what life is about. Nothing has any meaning and death is where it all ends.

According to an American governmental website [1], these are the typical symptoms:

As far as I can see, that which they call religious faith is little but sexual submission gone terribly wrong; as in, it has become an all-permeating obsession. The worshipping on an idol of the mind. The psychopathology of this phenomenon can, however, be rationally explained in terms of biological mechanics: The human being is a social animal which relies heavily on an instinct we call the obedience reflex in order to survive childhood. That is to say; children who are too daring will get themselves killed, whereas children who are subordinate to the principle of adult authority will survive to come of age and spread this instinct to the next generation(s). Seen in context, religious faith becomes an expression of infantile regression, a refusal to grow up and take personal responsibility for your life.

The most important part of attaining adulthood is to become your own boss, form your own mind, and make your own decisions. Those who can't (or won't) do that are refusing to leave behind the sense of security that adult authority supplied them with during the childhood years. So they seek a substitute. "There must be an authority out there, somewhere, that can liberate me from this terrible anxiety of adulthood" they say to themselves. They are lost at sea, floating and bobbing around without a clue, terrified by the ominous ambiguity of life, desperately seeking something solid to hang on to.