I know I keep mentioning our local cafe in Charlton park; one of the reasons I like it so much is the variety of characters you meet there. The regulars come from all walks of life, with many stories to tell. I was just chatting with one particularly interesting fellow, Adrian. He has quite severe mental health issues, but beneath them you can tell he is a very astute, articulate and perceptive guy. Adrian and I were just chatting about the old institutions: where I have just heard dark stories of such places, he has personal experience.

Towards the end of our chat, Adrian said something which I thought was so perceptive that I instantly decided to note it here. He reckons that if we asked the world’s leading psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists to look at human society as a whole, to see it in terms of being one vast, collective mind, they would probably diagnose it as having a personality disorder. When I heard him say that, I laughed out loud; he was so right. Human society, as a whole, is extremely insecure with itself; it does not know whether it’s coming or going, at odds with it’s environment. Moreover, for a man who has personal experience of such issues to point that out, seems to me quite profound.