Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post posed this question towards the end of her article yesterday:

So why is it that we can talk shamelessly about our herniated disks, celiac disease and plantar fasciitis, but depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis and post-traumatic stress disorder are taboo?

I happen to think that is simple, as simple as people view diseases as diseases, and mental or psychological disorders as something you can just switch on and off. Like feelings and emotions.

But the reality is, it may not just be that simple. I often struggle to understand human progress over the past hundred years since the Industrial Revolution took hold. We went from a village-centric society bound by church and community to this sort of de-centralized free-for-all society loosely held together by laws and mandates, many of which were written two hundred years ago by different people. What if the United States were founded today? What if our government formed today and had to decide how to operate. Would we still be the same as we were founded?

My answer is no.

My answer is no, because we’ve changed the way we live over each generation because everything dictated we do so. The environment, medicine, technology, commerce, everything we take for granted today had to be developed and cultivated to fruition by someone before us. Yet the very same people who create this progress turn and denounce it like a science fiction movie where the scientist who invented a sentient AI laments doing so because it goes rogue. We push the boundaries of evolutionary and mechanical sciences every day, and behind them are scores of people bitching about how moral it is, or how we’re stepped on God’s toes.

Ah, but mental health. That is the new issue. It’s been over a decade since Columbine, and we’re just now starting to open discussion about this?

Progressive America has spent the better part of the past forty years championing social reform, everything from reproductive rights, dissolving the influence of the church, and expanding the rights of the working class. These are all things that have been in progress since The Industrial Revolution began, since collective rights and unions formed. I really have no qualms with this. I welcome social change in America. We don’t need religion to dictate the course of our social structure. Women have the right to make decisions about their bodies. Non-white people have the right to work, vote, and be equal among us. I’ll never say this differently.

The thing that progressives miss, I feel, is that if you remove religion as the centerpiece of a family’s moral and social structure, you need something to replace it with that will continue to act as their pillar of support. Everyone seems to think that placing government in that role is a great idea, that they’ll provide for you, help you, and know what is best for you. If that were the case, we’d all be happy shiny people holding hands.

But we’re not.

The fact is, after removing religion from this country’s foundation, the divorce rate has gone up, more babies are born to single mothers, often out of wedlock, murders, suicides, and various crimes have gone up, use of controlled and illegal substances has skyrocketed, frivolous lawsuits and litigation has skyrocketed as a result of a dissolving code of common sense and decency for one another. The list can go on, really. Pick one.

Now I am not saying we bring religion back, but what this discussion on mental health needs to evolve into is a discussion about morals, values, and social responsibility. It’s fairly universal that people do not want government running their lives, and this includes those in traditional liberal-left camps. But when faced with either accepting their help or not, your back is against the wall. I certainly understand that. But the political elite know this, and they’re backing us all in this corner because it keeps them in power. We’re creating a political class separate from the rest of society paid for by that very society. Does no one think this is wrong? We have celebrities, sports players, musicians, artists, developers, CEOs, and other people with gobs of money who have formed their own class, complete with their own social circles and norms. Does no one think this is wrong? We’re sitting here talking about class warfare and income inequality, and the entire time we don’t realize it is only we who are to blame? All of us. Every single last one of us. We’ve spent the past one hundred years turning what was a beacon of hope and freedom for the world into a country where it’s not about what you do, it’s about who you know.

So when it comes to mental health, you’re damn right we have no idea how any of these conditions work, we don’t want to have any idea of how they work. They’re all just written off as lost causes. Take Sandy Hook for example, when you listen to the news, how many people died that day? If you answered twenty-six, you are wrong. It was twenty-eight. Twenty-six students and educators, the shooter, and the first victim, his mother. She has been written out of every single count, figure, and report, effectively, because we as a society are shaming her for raising a cold-blooded killer and allowing him access to the guns he used that day. She ignored his mental health and let him commit mass murder. She, like him, does not deserve our sympathy, our compassion, or our pity. Her body will rot in its grave forgotten by everyone outside of her immediate family simply because she thought what she was doing was right.

Like many other parents and adults. Always making decisions for their children or others based on what they think is right. When those decisions prove to be fatal, they are outed from society unless they wash their hands of it quickly. I am looking at you, Hillary “Benghazi” Clinton.

So the discussion around mental health should never be “why”, or “how”, because we have had a hundred years of social progress and change, on top of advancement in medicine and psychology, to damn well understand why people do what they do. But until we stop and actually take the time to observe ourselves and each other, you’ll never get to the bottom of a puzzle you refuse to start. Ever.

You cannot ignore, will away, legislate, or remove emotions and feelings. They’ll always be there. It’s high time you people started acting on them. Maybe then we’ll have a fighting chance before some higher order, alien power, or Fourth Reich rises and attempts to take control of the human race. There is no black and white anymore, only shades of grey.