Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy, then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. Science fiction? It is already happening to some extent in our own society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed, modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect, antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual’s internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.

Those are profound words spoken of experience by a man who knew, all too well, the pressures faced by those who are “mentally ill” in a modern Western society. Those words were written by Theodore Kaczynski, and although his actions throughout the course of his life have been those of a deeply troubled man, his writings are sometimes so profound as to make me question the sanity of a world that would label him insane. True enough, Mr. Kaczynski is insane by any reasonable standard, but through the fog of mental illness, he saw something real in society that many have yet to find. These words, profound, haunting and true, have been ruminating in my mind, forming the basis for the words which you are about to read.

As much as it’s true that modern society has afforded Western humans with the technologies that we have come to take for granted in the span of only a few hundred little years, society has also changed us in a fundamental way. We are no longer creatures of work and self sufficiency. We are creatures of technology, creatures of dependence, creatures of entitlement and creatures of isolation. We are predestined to need the support of our tribe, but we now shun the tribe in favor of a brightly lit computer screen or television set. Without the technology that we have come to depend on, we would be lost. And with those same technologies, we have become prisoners in our own minds.

Humans are not meant to sit in front of a television and computer screen all day. Humans are not meant to substitute words on a screen for human interaction. Humans are not meant to live a sedentary life, nor are they intended to live to be 100 years old. All of these modern technologies are wonderful, but they have created a society of lonely and inhuman people. We no longer know how to interact with eachother. We no longer know how to find pleasure in simple things. We now seek happiness in a pill instead of seeking the root of our unhappiness so that we may slay it and be free from within.

We no longer accept childishness from our children. If a child acts up, we drug him instead of parenting him. If a child cannot concentrate in school, we assume there is something wrong with him. We forget that children are meant to be playful. Children are meant to test boundaries. Children are meant to be free to explore and learn in their own unique ways. Children are not meant to be locked in a room reading from textbooks. When children behave as children, we no longer accept their behavior as natural. Anything other than perfect is unacceptable and must be dealt with harshly. The free spirit must be removed from each and every child before he learns to think, question and feel.

By the time we reach adulthood, we’ve forgotten that there was once another way to live. We’ve forgotten that our fantasies are sometimes more real than our lives. We’ve forgotten that it’s in our nature to question our reality. We’ve lost the desire to better ourselves. We want the easy solution to each and every problem. We want the answers to be given to us instead of finding the truth for ourselves. We want the magic pill.

We learn to love ease of use. We learn to give up a small bit of freedom here and another small bit there to make our lives just a little more simple. We learn to sign away a bit of privacy in exchange for a bit of weight off our shoulders. We learn not to question those topics to which no answer is easily obtainable. We learn to accept the answers we are given. It’s easier this way. Nobody has to think. Nobody has to argue. Nobody has to question the way things are, and nobody has to fight to make things better.

We’ll take that magic pill if you tell us to because that pill will make us happy. We’ll take that pill because we no longer have to make our own happiness. We no longer have to make our own destiny. We’ll take that magic little pill because we’d all just like to be happy.

But we’ve lost our sense of self. We’ve lost the unique character of the human species. We’ve lost that thing that makes us special. We’ve lost our willingness to question bad ideas. We’ve lost our ability to stand up for what’s right because what’s right is often hard. We’ve lost our drive to improve humanity for humanity’s sake. We no longer care to be free–to answer to only our own happiness, desires and needs. Humanity’s mantra has changed. “Rape me,” we say, “but promise you’ll still love me in the morning.” We can no longer see that he who rapes us could never love us. We’ve become blinded to the pain by our little magic pills. We no longer know how to make ourselves happy. And we no longer care. As long as we have our pill, we don’t need anything else.

But maybe we’re better off without it.