If you go to the website of London’s Royal Court Theatre, you’ll find a paragraph headed “Trigger Warnings”, advising that some plays contain material “that can be particularly distressing for some individuals”. If you’re an author who thinks your new book may cause offence, you can get a “sensitivity reader” to vet it. We now spend a lot of time agonising over people’s feelings. Hardly a day goes by without someone trying to ban something: students at a US university have banned the “alt-right” provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos from giving a talk, fearing he’d create an “unsafe space” for people on campus. Such moves, however well-intentioned, are based on the flawed assumption that people are so fragile they must be shielded from things that may upset them. Wrong. As the eminent psychiatrist Sir Simon Wessely discovered after the 7/7 London bombings, the counselling given to the survivors actually made many feel worse. “People are tougher than we think,” and it is by facing up to our fears that we overcome them. Instead of searching out sources of offence, we must trust in people’s adaptability and resilience. (David Aaronovitch, The Times)

It would be nice if the world were rational, placid, kind and considerate, all things valued by Epicurus. But it isn’t and won’t ever be, because there are many bullies, greedy manipulators and people ruthlessly trying to get ahead. They have always existed and always will. Epicurus advised us to avoid them and to concentrate on friends and activities we enjoy, the purpose being to have a pleasant and as joy-filled life as possible. Trigger warnings are patronising and unnnecessary. If you go to a play that is disturbing and the language too vulgar for you, walk out. If you are confronted by disagreeable people, simply walk away. At some point you have to grow up. The world is what it is. You can exert influence in the right direction, but you cannot cure all ills.