Winter of Discontent

As the winter of discontent begins, a front of depression sweeps across the populace. It’s December’s foggy freeze that shoulders the blame for the epidemic, but Jack Frost is wrongfully accused. What these huddled masses disregard or forget is that regardless of wind chill, snow pack, or barometric pressure, life is always miserable.

Seasonal depression is but another long-winded excuse concocted by an already heavily-medicated culture. People are depressed because life is miserable. Life is miserable because people make stupid choices. In an attempt to evade consequence, pseudo-sophisticated justifications are manufactured to hide society’s dysfunctions and inefficiencies. The idea of taking responsibility for the dire conditions of life is just too much so the despondent instead hide and hibernate, finding solace in a clinically accepted pretext.

Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, is now a widely acknowledged and commonly diagnosed mood disorder. The idea behind it is that the lack of sunlight causes people to become depressed, gain weight, and be more lethargic than in warmer months. It’s thought to be seasonal because when spring arrives the symptoms seemingly melt away with the snow. While this idea of seasonal depression is in vogue some doctors remain skeptical, or perhaps they are simply less keen on padding their wallets. Some believe that this so-called “depression” is more like a human hibernation. Like many animals, the human body craves rest with less sunlight and the body stores fat in preparation for this. Of course the weight gain and lethargy could also be explained by the rich foods commonly consumed during the holidays. It’s less a matter of mood disorder as it is a matter of too many cookies left for Santa or adding another notch in the belt after feasting on the cornucopia of fats and calories that make for a satisfying Thanksgiving dinner.

Another factor that provides skepticism is the fact that many people remain depressed even after relocating to a warmer, sunnier climate. Of course the drug-pumping doctors have another theory for that: too much heat and sunlight has the same effect as too little heat and sunlight. Curious. SAD is thought to be caused by a vitamin D deficiency from lack of sunlight. It appears that too much sunlight, what should actually cure the disorder, can cause it as well. Of course there is the much simpler, albeit less scientific theory that people simply lead depressing, meaningless lives and it presents itself throughout the year, regardless of season.
Holidays too mark this time of wintry wrath. The end of the year is plagued by a thick façade of good cheer and charity, begetting an implicit reminder of just how miserable life is the rest of the year. This too might be a cause of what seems to be seasonal depression. It’s an example of what life could be; it’s a concentration of happy times which quickly dissipate once the season ends. Perhaps this is a major cause of depression, the contrast with what life is and what it could be. There’s also the myth that suicides go up during the holiday season. It’s a popular idea that’s actually been proven wrong. The suicide rate goes down during the holidays; as it turns out more people are concerned with hanging boughs of holly than themselves.

“Accept despair” as Sartre would say. Realize that it’s not just these months and weather systems that are depressing. This is an unloved generation, isolated by technology and left with the unpaid tab of former generations. There are no bail-outs for the depraved debt that’s been accumulated. Instead of donning the heavy mantle of responsibility for the misery of life it’s much easier to claim depression and sulk away. With no responsibility there is no consequence; with no venture there is no gain. Winter’s not to blame, rather isolation and the inability to cope with a cold and uncaring world is at the foundation of this widespread melancholy.

People only do what they want to do. Being miserable is comfortable. If people really cared about being happy, if that’s what they really wanted, they would find a way. Some do. Others instead they wallow in sloughs of self-deprecation and human ingenuity renders further excuses rather than eradicates them. Depression is an escape, a pretense to avoid adulthood and duty. It’s an elaborate hoax at best.
Winter, spring, summer or fall, life is a miserable mess. Responsibility for the dreary mentality that marks this time of year lies solely with those that nurture it. The huddled masses that bemoan the cold fronts are just looking for the richest and most believable reason to explain their pitiful state without accepting liability. Decades ago it was God’s fault. When belief in deity fell out of fashion it was the parents who took the blame. When it was realized that all parents were lousy and that excuse was rendered ineffective they went searching down the laundry list for new ones until finally arriving at weather.

People suffer the more they try to avoid suffering. This can’t be the pinnacle of human evolution when cold fronts cause a societal funk for an entire quarter of the year. The clouds aren’t to blame for the gray malaise that shrouds these bitter months, censure for this season of self-loathing and sadness belongs to those who enable it. It’s the rage against accountability, not bad weather, which creates this lamentable meaninglessness.

Domestic Terrorism

There are few things more irritating than a parent who doesn’t understand that their kid is, in fact, the most annoying presence in the vicinity. For example, the parent who buys their already annoying child shoes that squeak with every step. The only function those shoes might serve is to make the parent aware, at all times, of the child’s location. They serve no utility, however, as the child already at exists with a minimal volume exceeding 100 decibels. Obviously the parent, as well as everyone else within earshot, knows where the child is. Instead the shoes just serve to make the child grow exponentially more grating with each step. And why would the parent be so concerned with the whereabouts of such an undesirable thing, unless they’re tracking its movements so that they might eventually leave it behind? Perhaps many times the parent has almost successfully abandoned the offspring at a grocery store, only to hear the furious squeak-squeak-squeak behind them of that terrible burden in tow.

There's no excuse or absolution for the parent unaware of their destructive progeny who gaily throw items from store shelves and screech in high, almost ungodly, pitches. The blissfully ignorant are possibly the worst thing to happen to Western society, seconded only by the manufacturer of squeaking children’s shoes. The parent who acknowledges that their child is a hell spawn is far more tolerable. At least that parent can connect with the outside world with the knowledge that everyone is the room is just as annoyed as they are.