The cult of winning, of being extraordinary, of living a life somehow different, more elevated than the run-of-the-mill is destroying lives. People, who might have been happy settling for what is disparagingly called an 'ordinary' life, rarely find happiness in striving for things like celebrity, wealth, status and all the other related trappings of materialism.

For let there be no doubt about it, the anxiety created by the mad rush to be more clever, richer, better looking or famous than the average takes it toll, leading almost inevitably to disappointment, dissatisfaction, self-abuse, mental illness and even suicide. I have often wondered why conservatives of all stripes have so lauded a rapacious economic system that attacks the very things they love - stability, tradition, family, faith and so forth.

Of course, a few people do get there - that place they dreamed of and strove for - only to find it hollow and demanding more of the same, yet another chimera in the making. 

Just look at those who claim to have it all. No, really look, hard, and see if they aren't actually quite miserable beneath the doctored photos and posed-for moments. It is buyers-remorse writ large and you can't ever show the remorse, which would as good be an admission of failure.

It is such a waste of lives.