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--- thoughts:society:depression [2021/05/27 19:32] – Owen Mellema
+++ thoughts:society:depression [2021/05/28 02:49] (current) – Owen Mellema
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 ====== My Perspective on Depression ======
+//INCOMPLETE//
 I am living in an extraordinary generation. Although "youthfulness" once meant vigor, hope, and excitement, my young generation is overwhelmingly depressed, cynical, lacking hope. This is a real problem, not a simply imagined one, as evidenced by increasing rates of suicide. This is leading many to ask "What's happening to our kids?"
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 Furthermore, the basic structure of our brains also hasn't changed for a long time, because it works so well. Monkeys share our basic brain structure, and have been observed acting as we do. What really changed is that we, as humans, have more cognitive abilities. This was an evolutionary advantage, so it happened.
-I conjecture that evolution has never solved this problem because it never needed to. The environment we lived in regulated depression. Think about chimps. Chimps have never really changed their environment. So there would be no evolutionary advantage to addressing a problem that would only ever result from the environment changing. Therefore, if depression is caused by the environment changing, then there would be no advantage to fixing it.
+I conjecture that evolution has never solved this problem because it never needed to. The environment we lived in regulated depression. Think about chimps. Chimps have never really changed their environment. (([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T78nq62aQgM | 🎵Life could be a dream🎶 ]]))So there would be no evolutionary advantage to addressing a problem that would only ever result from the environment changing. Therefore, if depression is caused by the environment changing, then there would be no advantage to fixing it.
 You might wonder why we have it in the first place. Well, to answer that question we have to take off our "intelligent evolution" glasses. There are many things in our genes that don't serve a purpose and are just kind of there. It's well known that there's a good bit of DNA with no discernable purpose. Some of this is even conjectured to be a result of viral infections.
+===== Causes =====
+As I indicated in the previous section, talking about causes of the epidemic is hard. So, take all of this with a grain of salt.
+==== The decline of the "social ethic" ====
+Community is an important part of being human. There is a reason societies formed - people need to be around others. We need to be around others for the resources they provide, certainly, but also for the connections that we make with others.
+The fact is that communities are not a means to an end, but an end in themselves. We need them in order to know who we are in context and relationship to others. Sure, a balance between self and society must be found, and people must forge a part of their identity on their own. But there must be a balance. I call the part of a person's identity that is shaped by their society their "social ethic".
+Young people are more likely to take a functional view of society.