Depressed??

It seems to me that my generation seems to have sunk into inescapable self-made grey clouds of gloom. The clouds appear to be custom made to suit each individual; the colours of individual justification for low spirits may vary greatly, but the essential features of this "depression" seem to be mass manufactured. Here are some of my thoughts on why this is so.

I find it interesting that whenever a child draws a "happy" picture, it invariable contains a shining yellow sun, trees, birds and two or more people smiling...possibly holding hands. What it never contains are skyscrapers, cars spewing noxious fumes, and infact no sign of industrial development or any other sort of mechanization. At most, the picture may contain a cheerful brick house. I think that to the human mind, the drab shades of a metropolis represent complications, responsibilities, anxiety, and ugliness in every form; something that we all strive throughout our lives to escape. A large income provides us the means to create artificial serenity. It enables us to surround ourselves with the calming, invigorating colours and sounds of nature; the blue of the backyard swimming pool, the green of the front garden, chirping birds in the birdhouse hanging from the porch roof; the essentials of a natural environment while we still retain complete control. We strive to acquire money to be able to escape the ugliness that surrounds us because it dampens our spirits and gives us a discomfiting sense of foreboding. That's why people prefer the suburbs to the city.

The self-absorption of the me generation may also contribute towards "depression". Self-professed depression could merely be a way to grab attention. Alternately, it may be a way to confirm one's coolness. It is very unhip to show happiness, or to display emotion in any form. Again, it may be that depression is confused with outright boredom, something that seems to have gripped the present generation. What is interpreted as depression may simply be the widespread lethargy, listlessness, incompetence and total ineffectualness that seems endemic in the me generation.