Over the past years, as I’ve been reading these various texts on psychology, neuroscience and psychosomatic pain, I’ve been bothered with one thought: If all this stuff is true, I think, then it just seems like most of humanity would have to be screwed up. By this I mean that if we presume correct the idea of a subconscious that torments its owner, or that mental disarray causes physical pain, then it seems like the average joe would be a mess. And this perplexed me because, for the most part, the average joe seems all right.

But in the past couple months I’ve really opened my eyes. And I’ve I realized that most people are fucked! For instance – and I know I’m ranting about a topic I’ve ranted about before – what’s with all these morbidly obese people? That’s beyond mere physical unhealthiness and getting into some kind of warped psychological drive to consume everything in one’s path, a gastronomical death wish. And I’m also struck by a tendency you see among so many – myself at one point – to worry obsessively about largely meaningless things (sports scores, job problems that can clearly be solved, bullshit politics.) It strikes me now that the point of such behavior isn’t any kind of productive worrying (e.g. heading off an actual impending problem), it’s simply worrying to avoid responsibility. If the disaster does happen these people/I can say, “Well I was worrying about it – you saw me!” This kind of behavior, like overeating, is clearly insane. (There’s a flip side to the worrying issue as well: people are not worrying about activities such as eating themselves to death, or not sleeping enough (things they can do something about), that clearly are problems.)

It’s possible Devo was right – we’re moving backwards, de-evolving.

In truth, I think humanity will muddle through as it always does. But I’m no longer struggling with the idea that most people are insane wackos (myself included.) It’s clearly the case.

You know, while we’re on the subject, here’s a great Devo song with a psychological bent.