It is a fairly well-established fact that the incidence of depression among the American population has increased dramatically since the early '90s. There are several possible explanations for this increase, including better diagnosis, more public awareness, mass marketing by giant pharma of profitable new anti-depressants and even the increased consumption of junk food. My pet candidate is increasing environmental contamination of one kind or the other. That humans evolved over a period of thousands of years without these chemicals in the environment should be enough reason to seriously investigate the long-term effects of low concentrations of, say, anti-cholesterol medicine, birth-control hormones or bovine growth hormone.

Yesterday, I went to a seminar for lawyers (Yes, I am a lawyer) on the subject of stress in the law profession and how to cope with it. Since I occasionally give seminars on lawyer stress and impairment, I was familiar with most of what the speaker had to say, but he identified one stressor that I had long suspected: a lack of control over one's life.

Research has shown that we generally feel less stressed by situations we choose or create ourselves than by those situations that we believe are imposed upon us by other people. It follows that when members of a society either have or believe they have fewer options and therefore less control over their lives we can expect a higher rate of stress-related disorders, including depression, among the general population.

Because of political and economic changes over the past 26 years, the average American has fewer options. The American family works approximately six weeks more per year for the same income. Americans have gone deeply into debt, which restricts their spending options. The protection of labor unions and the labor laws have been gutted by successive anti-labor governments. The desires of the American people with respect to national policy decisions has been increasingly ignored by both Republican and Democratic politicians, although it is Republicans that have carried this trend to audacious extremes. Most people feel that their voice is not heard where it matters and have withdrawn from any form of political participation into either cynicism or fundamentalist premillinarinism.

The War on Drugs^® and the War on Terror^® have been used to shred the provisions of the Bill of Rights and create militarized police forces right in our own cities, equipped with military weapons and trained in military tactics. Even though Americans might feel that some of their rights might be profitably sacrificed for a little more security, it is hard to believe that these losses do not contribute to the general mood of despair for the future, even if unconscious. A descent from freedom into slavery or serfdom, even if voluntary, must inevitably have devastating psychological effects.

Depression has its political uses, as well. A depressed people are far less likely to challenge the ruling elite, since depression is almost invariably characterized by the loss of hope. Depression also makes people blame themselves for their troubles, rather than policy decisions made in Washington or in their own state houses. Depression impairs judgment and often expresses itself in psychosomatic illnesses. Because their judgment is impaired, depressed persons are apt to seek simple solutions handed down by demagogues rather than to pick their way through the complexity and moral ambiguity that has always been at the heart of the human condition.

Creationism instead of evolution solves the problem of who we are. Premillinarianism solves two problems. First, it absolves us from responsibility for the future by eliminating an earthly future. Global warming isn't a problem if the Earth isn't going to be around much longer. Second, it absolves us from moral obligations to anyone else but "us" as opposed to "them," meaning by "them" not only moslems, Hindus and Buddhists, but also non-premillinarian Christians. When the eschaton arrives, we "saved," dressed in white robes, will look down from the heights of Heaven with righteous pleasure on the sufferings of the damned far below and rejoice in our good fortune that we are not they. War and pestilence become merely signs of the second coming, which will end all suffering for the elect.

Apocalyptic beliefs, as reflected in history and literature, usually become widely adopted when people who are oppressed have lost hope that they can end their oppression by their own efforts. They withdraw from participation in what they see as a fundamentally evil and doomed society. When apocalypticism becomes a mass movement it frequently betokens the disintegration of a civilization and the beginning of a dark age.

What is to be done? Warn of the dangers but embrace hope, because there is hope. Comfort those who despair, but teach responsibility, because we cannot escape our responsibility for the way our behavior affects the rest of the world. Resist those who trade in lies and desire power above all else, but love them nevertheless, because evil thrives where love is gone. Lastly, remember that nothing of any real value has been done in this world by people concerned exclusively with protecting their own ass.