The Huffington Post recently ran an
article arguing that antidepressants don't work for treating depression. Although the article quickly disintegrated into the usual West coast platitudes about how eating enough B12 and omega-3 fatty acids (presumably while taking your daily teaspoon of local bee honey to combat your allergies) will solve all your problems, it still piqued my curiosity.
From most people I know who take them, the reality is that antidepressants do in fact 'work' in treating the anxiety and subsequent depression of modern life, they just work badly and with a large number of adverse and often life-altering consequences. These include the well discussed
flattening of creativity and dampening of sex drive, and other more subtle but interesting effects.
The reality is that there is something about the construction of our modern society that leads us to slowly go insane in the form of hyper anxiety and depression. As Gene Orlov wrote in
March
Life in the USA gives everyone a pain that is for many people simply not survivable without drugs: either alcohol, pharmaceuticals or illegal drugs.
In other words, antidepressants don't really do anything to cure depression; they just numb you to the painful compromises of life. Now the sensible thing to do in a situation like this would be to alter the nature of our society, closely examine or labor arrangements and social conventions that lead us to work harder and harder even as our society grows more 'efficient'.
It seems obvious, if somewhat heretical, to observe that the only way to really eliminate the anxiety and depression that accompanies modern life in the United States is to fundamentally alter the structure of our relationships, employment, life choices, etc.
It seems equally as obvious that for the vast majority of us, such a reassessment is either too terrifying, too labor intensive, or too economically infeasible to contemplate. As a result we deny the absurdities of our modern existence and simply choose to self-medicate; the rich and upper bourgeoisie with antidepressant medication, alcohol, cannabis, and cocaine, and the working classes with food, methamphetamines, and Fox News. We suffer obvious consequences (loss of engagement with and access to one's own personality, morbid obesity, loss of teeth, the Tea-party movement) but the real changes needed to alleviate our disorder are beyond us.
Global climate change presents similar challenges. We live in a world economic system that axiomatically is resulting in terrifying and potentially catastrophic consequences including famine, resource wars, extinctions, pestilence and disease, drought, all the way to the possible end of human civilization (
I'm not exaggerating).
Now obviously, the sensible thing to do would be to change the way we do business. Such change might even be culturally enriching, economically stimulating, and spiritually rewarding. Of course, so is reading a book, and even hard core intellectuals these days are finding it more and more difficult to turn off the Tweetdeck and sit in quiet contemplation (don't even mention the vast hoards watching 'The Biggest Loser' a show that transforms the process of normal self-restraint into a voyeuristic, yet socially affirmed, pornography of calorie self-denial and exercise obsession. Why promote a healthy lifestyle when you can have a 'transformation' and a 'reveal' moment at the conclusion).
But I digress. The point is there is no possible way we as a society are going to alter our economic system in time to combat global climate change. The official explanation for this is that we currently 'lack the political will'. This is a polite way of saying that those who benefit from our current system (the rich in the United States) and those who wish to challenge their supremacy (The Chinese Communist Party) have no interest in allowing change to occur and that the civic society in each nation is insufficiently organized and motivated to demand or create such change.
The reasons we are too lazy, terrified, and disorganized to challenge our governments to address global warming are similar to the reasons we fail to address the growing inequality, and oppressive and unfair efficiency of our economic system. We are exhausted, confused, distracted and diverted, and assuaged by symbolic gestures that help us feel like we are 'making a difference'.
Of course buying a Prius and bringing your own bag to Whole foods is not going to save us from the catastrophe of global climate change any more than eating your daily supplement of vitamin B12 and Omega-3 fatty acids will spare you the gnawing 3:00 am anxiety of modern life.
Just with the 'depression' of modern life, the solution to global warming is a half-step, a technological Band Aid most likely in the form of
a sulfur dioxide shield. For the uninitiated, a sulfur dioxide shield consists of annually depositing sulfur dioxide molecules into the atmosphere to simulate the effects of a volcanic eruption, block out the sun and cool the planet.
Will it work? In fact it probably will, but just as with antidepressants, there are some undesirable side effects. The sky will become a slightly different color (ironically blander during the day, more colorful at sunrise and sunset), we won't be able to control exactly how the cooling occurs (what cools where and how this will effect global climatic systems like the jet stream), but yes it will probably work.
However, just like using antidepressants to ease the pain of modern life, the conditions that cause the problem will remain. We will still have billions of tons of CO2 dumped into our atmosphere (using our atmosphere like an open sewer as
Al Gore said in February). This will result in Ocean acidification which likely will destroy the marine food chain. Can we survive this? Sure, but expect to see a lot less fish and a lot more marketing pitches for the health benefits of eating algae paste.
Also forget about ever stopping using the shield. You lift the shield and all of a sudden we'll be completely exposed, and the planet will warm violently. Just think of all those mid-40's couples with the kids, the big mortgages, and the private sector jobs who have been on antidepressants since their late 20's. Sure, you could take their antidepressants away, but it won't be a pretty sight.
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