MICHAEL DAVIS WORLD

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Depression and Fools, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #374 | @MDWorld

August 18, 2014 Mike Gold 5 Comments

Brainiac Art 374Once again, the public’s attention is focused on the issue of depression, this time brought about by the sad travails of Robin Williams, a man whose career touched untold tens of millions over five decades. We could just as easily be discussing any or all of a legion of sufferers, including Buzz Aldrin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Winston Churchill, Calvin Coolidge, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Abraham Lincoln, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Leo Tolstoy, and Vincent Van Gogh.

But these latter sufferers, with the arguable exception of Buzz Aldrin, were not subjected to the 24/7 glare of our sundry sniveling gossip media. Most certainly, they were not subjected to the whims and wailings of our so-called social media, which often turns out to be anything but sociable. Given a quarter of a chance, some armed with Twitter, Instagram, Facebook et al while remaining fully cloaked in cowardly anonymity prove to be as vile and disgusting as your average serial killing cannibal.

Here’s the part I am incapable of understanding. A couple bone fide assholes took a couple of photos of the head and the neck of a man who ostensibly hanged himself in Europe two years ago. They Photoshopped Robin Williams’ head over the dead man’s to make it look as though it was the official morgue shot. They posted this great work to their Twitter account, and evidently it got reTweeted around by other, equally stable people of high intelligence and compassion.

I am hardly the poster-boy for good taste, and I understand how a heat of the moment comment springs forth: upon occasion I have crossed my own line. As did Kiss’s Gene Simmons, who made an asshole comment and, later, recanted on his Facebook page: “To the extent my comments reported by the media speak of depression, I was wrong and in the spur of the moment made remarks that in hindsight were made without regard for those who truly suffer the struggles of depression. I sincerely apologize to those who were offended by my comments. I recognize that depression is very serious and very sad when it happens to anyone, especially loved ones. I deeply support and am empathetic to anyone suffering from any disease, especially depression.

That works for me. As I implied, we all make dickhead comments from time to time and his apology seems heartfelt. I’d worked with Gene a bit and I think I can see the difference between the man and the make-up.

This is in opposition to genuine dickheads such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox’s Shepard Smith. Both attempted to walk back their comments but neither were the least bit convincing. Calling Williams a coward, Smith said he was “just wondering aloud.” Maybe he should think before he opens his mouth in a medium so instantly influential.

As for Rush – a man who the Daily Kos eloquently defined as a racist, homophobic, misogynistic bigot… well, I’ll let him speak for himself: “Now, what is the left’s worldview in general? What is it? If you had to attach not a philosophy but an attitude to a leftist worldview, it’s one of pessimism and darkness, sadness. They’re never happy, are they? They’re always angry about something. No matter what they get, they’re always angry.

“They are animated in large part by the false promises of America, because the promises of America are not for everyone, as we see each and every day. I mean, right here there’s a story Fox News website. Do you know, it says right here, that the real reasons that Robin Williams killed himself are he was embarrassed at having to take television roles after a sterling movie career.”

Limbaugh later said he was quoted out of context and, to tie it all up with a neat little bow, he pointed out he couldn’t care less about Robin Williams or anybody else suffering from depression.

In so doing, Rush also dismisses the work of Buzz Aldrin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Winston Churchill, Calvin Coolidge, Charles Dickens, Ernest Hemingway, Abraham Lincoln, Michelangelo, Isaac Newton, Leo Tolstoy, and Vincent Van Gogh.

Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com and on iNetRadio, www.iNetRadio.com as part of “Hit Oldies” every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check www.getthepointradio.com above for times and on-demand streaming information. Gold also joins MDW’s Marc Alan Fishman, and Martha Thomases as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.

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Comments

  1. Rene
    August 18, 2014 - 12:51 pm

    There is a lot of vile things being said on the Internet, radio, and TV daily. Celebrities’ deaths shines a light on attrocious behaviour that would be ignored in a “normal” day. Not that it excuses it. These assholes should be called on it and criticized every day.

    And the problem isn’t that Limbaugh and Smith are conservatives. The problem is that they’re assholes. Whatever your politics, religion, philosophy, or worldview happens to be, the moment you care more about them than about flesh and blood people, particularly flesh and blood people that are suffering, such as the friends and family of Robin Williams, then that is the moment when you’ve earned the title of asshole.

  2. R. Maheras
    August 19, 2014 - 7:08 am

    Don’t most creative types go through bouts of, or extended periods of, depression? I mean, when first starting out in their endeavor, they must endure countless rejections of their work. Then, if “successful,” there’s the guilt factor of, “Why me and not my pal and peer, Joe Sixpack?” And if they’re never “successful,” that also can lead to depression.

    I also think there’s merit in the old adage, “ignorance is bliss.” Really, really smart people tend to constantly overthink and re-hash stuff in their brain until it sometimes consumes them. So being somewhat ignorant can be a blessing, methinks. So can developing the ability to shrug stuff off and move on — or “fire and forget,” in military parlance.

    Depression can also be the result of some chemical imbalance — which means it can sometimes be tempered with medication, or triggered by medication. Some of Williams’ friends apparently think his suicide may have been triggered by his Parkinson’s medication.

    It’s a complex issue, and reflexive comments in the heat of the moment are generally not a good idea.

  3. Mike Gold
    August 19, 2014 - 8:05 am

    I think depression is virtually always the result of a chemical imbalance, usually triggered by some significant trauma or accumulation of traumas. That chemical imbalance could be brought about by physical or psychological trauma — soldiers in war suffering from injury or constant barrage, for example.

    Just my theory. But what I’d really like to know is this: does creative involvement bring about depression, or is the chemical “imbalance” dormant with respect to depression but active for creative activity… just waiting to be triggered for depression?

    I dunno. Them brains are tricky.

    My depression, which I’m still fighting but I’ve been gaining on it, was triggered by my wife’s sudden death. Go figure. I guess now I’ve got to do that “creative” stuff.

  4. R. Maheras
    August 19, 2014 - 9:36 am

    Create away. It’s good for you!

    What’s nice about being older is if someone sticks their nose up at my creative efforts, I just say “Screw ’em,” and press on. Creating is therapy for me, and I frankly don’t care all that much what anyone thinks about my work anymore. Kudos are nice and all, but they are no longer a major motivator. If they were, I would have stopped creating back in the late 1970s.

  5. Rene
    August 19, 2014 - 9:37 am

    Celebrities are a risk group for external causes, IMO. They have high pressure jobs and they live in an environment permissive of drugs. Any teenager in a decayed urban neighbourhood will be prone to the same problems.

    My somewhat cynical opinion is that “creative” people aren’t essentialy different when it comes to depression or other emotional problems. It’s just that they’re more in the spotlight.

    Joe Average may suffer from depression, alcoholism and entertain suicidal thoughts, but no one will hear about it, except his family. And it certainly won’t be glamourized.

  6. Martha Thomases
    August 20, 2014 - 5:17 am

    Depression is a disease, just like cancer and the flu and diabetes. It’s not the same as being sad, or grief (although there is overlap, as Mike can testify). And while here can be external “triggers,” (I’m not sure that is the right word) just as smoking and the wrong diet can trigger cancer or diabetes, it’s really not that simple. Lots of people get cancer and diabetes without smoking or a poor diet.

    We don’t tell people to just work with a therapist to get through cancer. We go to doctors who try to find the right treatment for our particular version of the disease. And maybe therapists, too, because they are almost always useful. There is no reason to treat depression differently.

    Every person’s depression is unique, and needs it’s own unique solution. It foesnt need blaming or our Puritan mindset.

  7. Mike Gold
    August 20, 2014 - 7:55 am

    The most depressing thing about depression is that, after a while, most tend to think it will last forever. The most beautiful thing about depression is that, after a lot of experimentation with lifestyle, diet, prescription drugs and the support of a few close friends, one day you look back and say “Damn, I’m doing better!”

    Patience. And don’t hide your depression from your closest friends and loved ones. Do the stuff you know you used to enjoy, and before too long you’ll once again enjoy the stuff you know you used to enjoy.

    As for those who think that simply “manning up” will fix anything — well, tell them a sure-fire cure for depression is beating the shit out of macho imbeciles.

    Who knows? It might work.

  8. Rene
    August 20, 2014 - 9:43 am

    The “manning up” thing is ridiculous. I seem to remember some Australian conservative woman that said that the depression epidemics is caused by liberals ruining males by insisting on sensivity, feelings and other politically correct things.

    (By the way, that is a hallmark of conservatives. For some reason they’re obsessed with “manhood” and the loss of manhood)

    In any case, people commented that in the good old days, males didn’t have a social license to “whine” (i.e. discuss feelings) nor visited psychiatrists, but they suffered from depression all the same. They just usually visited a bar instead and drowned it all in booze. Hardly an ideal solution.

  9. Mike Gold
    August 20, 2014 - 12:10 pm

    I remain under the impression that “manning up” is more important to Australians these days than to those of us in the other three quadrants of Earth.

    I agree that, as a stereotype, conservatives are more obsessed with manhood and the loss thereof than non-conservatives. We tend to think that pro-gun folks are conservatives; this is not true (Michael Moore is a member of the NRA) but that’s our impression. And I do believe that this stereotype that is slowly becoming outdated. For example, most of the men and women I know who are Iraq/Afghanistan vets are not so obsessed, they tend to identify themselves as conservatives but NOT with the Tea Party. More likely Libertarians.

    As for whining… Don’t make me whine. You wouldn’t like it if I whined.

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