I was coming back from a trip and during a 5 hour airport delay, struck up a conversation with a psychologist-psychiatrist husband and wife team. Both were from South America, and were coming back from a trip on Mayan archaeology.

The psychologist wife confided in me, "I believe that more and more people are becoming crazy in society. I can actually see it. It seems the sane ones are the ones coming to me for office visits, and the number of insane, and mentally ill people around them is increasing."

"Why?", I asked…."Stress, change too quickly, responsibilities, pace of life, consumerism, pressure, what?"

All of the above was her response.

And you know, my Zen master told me the same thing. A few things he always predicted:

One - 50 years ago he said the US would only be the "numero uno" country and respected world leader for 50 nore years, and that time is over now. After that, he said, it would lose its preeminence.  He correctly predicted the decline of Taiwan, WHEN IT WAS AT ITS PEAK, andno one believed him in that either. And when he predicted he'd build a railroad in CHina and put it on the stock market, when China was still COmmunist and lacking any sort of capital markets, people just laughed. NAturally, he did it.
Second - marriage would all but disappear by the end of this century, and that's happening already. 
Third, the Chinese language would become world spoken and you would be considered second class if you didn't speak it. With the rise of China, and his prediction of 180 years of upwards fortune, that seems right. 
And fourth - not cancer, but mental illness would become like a plague for this century. People would avoid others because of the fea rof mental illness.

Already you can see it. After having visited South America and returned to the US, it's easy to see how the pressure to make a living in a competitive market, with capitalism leading to job losses, outsourcing, and so forth, and the focus on debt-consumerism and ever speeding up pace of society is leading to stresses never seen before and mental illness. It isn't seen as mental illness because people still function, but their mind is definitely unbalanced, or  "off".

Example: Sub-cultures are springing up around the X-box and Playstation where adults escape society and the world and care only about virtual reality, as just one instance. I'm not talking about good old fashioned fun and play but fanatical, extreme, mental deviations that constitute an illness.

It's happening slowly. The health or wellness of a country cannot be measured in terms of productivity or GNP increases anymore. It must be measured in terms of life quality, including free time, and  life enjoyment. The French have something there.  South Americans do, too.The Chinese have learned how to mix the social with business to create some release valves, too, and make the pace more bearable.

Think about it. More productivity only means more devices/equipment/processes that only lead  to more demands on you and your personal time.

Examples:

A word processer? You lose your secretary. A computer? Book your own tickets… The result? More stress, more demands for speed, a decline in the  quality of life, a crazy mind and no time to rest. And globalism is accelerating that even more, making the stresses unbearable. Is it cheaper to do it over there in that country? Then let's get rid of these jobs here….

The end result — more types of mental illness, more stress, more panic, more depression  – the walking functional mentally ill. I'm not talking about Parkinsons, Alzheimers or conditions like that, which will certainly increase (another fallacy there — live longer by extending your life and you still have quality life). I'm talking about mental illnesses, dream state living, the 5 errant perspectives of Buddhism, depression and so forth.

Buddhism is a cure with its teachings  on detachment. So is Shintoism with its teaching son simplicyt and natural living. Meditation is key.

The cure — wisdom, meditation, cleaner living, simpler living. You can do a lot bydetoxing your body for one thing, as those extra chemical burdens that build up aren't helping matters. And meditation, for sure. That goes without saying. And not being exposed or falling in for all sorts of society group-think craziness issues. But to go into those would take forever.

It seems inescapable, but you can do some things.

How?

Turn off TV. Read. De-stress. Meditate by detaching from thoughts, your body, and impulses or emotions or forces that would impel you. Support your environment so that what you see around you is pristine nature, which allows you to breathe and relax even more. Spend quality time with the family, slow quality time where you talk. Get off the consumerism bandwagon. STops believing authroities who don't have a clue and don't have YOUR best interests at heart — tat's one caus efor depression.

The real cure for this is CULTURE. Not superficial buy this an be entertained or distracted, but deep, slow C U L T U R E. That's what I'm devoted to helping develop.

More later…