Returning to my recent visit to Syria: the most lasting impression I  brought back with me is the relaxed and happy atmosphere in Syria, despite its undemocratic and unpleasant government.   The smiles, laughter and general cheerfulness of these relatively poor people under the “yoke” of socialism is in marked contrast to the grey resignation of the British and the grim, unsmiling reception one gets on returning to the US.   Those whose immediate reaction is that “America is the light of the world and the greatest country since Tutankhamun” should travel more.

Why is it, this lack of fun and lightness, this taking oneself so seriously? 

In the last thirty years the incidence of  mental illness in the US, Britain and Australia, NZ and Canada  has doubled, and citizens of these countries are twice as likely to suffer mental illness than people in mainland Western Europe.  An average of 23% of all citizens of the Anglo Affluenzic region suffered in the last year, compared with 11.5% of Germans. Italians. Spanish, Dutch and French.  And , oh dear, they have socialized medicine, the trip-word that sends conservatives into a teeth-gnashing frenzy!

Oliver James blames Selfish Capitalism, which places emphasis on money, possessions, appearance and fame when you already have enough money to meet your fundamental needs.  Inequality doesn’t matter as much as the stoking up of aspirations and expectations while making jobs less secure and removing any loyalty or commitment to work.  The pathetic idea that material affluence is the key to fulfillment is swallowed by the gullible.  Epicurus had a Garden for a good reason, to get well away from the propagandists, the manipulators and greed-mongers to a place where he could live in moderation according to his real needs.

Epicureanism is the idea whose time has come, not the Epicureanism of the selfish , but the Epicureanism of the civilized and enlightened, who give so that they can receive.