– can you guess the ending?

Finally I’ve worked out how the species will exit this world.  Forget all the usual suspects (epidemic/ global warming/ tsunami/ asteroid/ nuclear catastrophe…), this one is a lot simpler and already well advanced.  Mental illness.  Of just the people you know, who hasn’t taken anti-depressants?  Suffers from an eating disorder?  Is addicted?  Why would a staggering 2 billion (that’s a quarter of us) want to watch the latest sick-fest Royal Wedding?  Follow sport (rather than do it)?  Waste their hard-earned money playing (and this seems to be the very last word to choose for a scam that doesn’t actually pay out) the Lottery?  Vote?  And finally, believe in a god (three-quarters of all the people on the planet, including most world leaders, do).

No, the numbers tell the story, we are a species that is doomed, past its sell-by-date, lost all sense of what it means to be alive, and in a last-ditch (Pincher Martin) attempt to survive are frantically latching on to whatever lifebelt is offered, even though it is hopeless and thrown by those who simply want to exploit the situation, for none of the above is benign.  The pharmaceutical industry can’t believe our gullibility.  The spotless Royal Family likewise (that the great british taxpayer felt honoured to foot their £32 million nuptial bill).  And sport, what is it other than an excellent tool for social control and making money?  Government?  No need, I hope, to point out the inherent corruption in that Royal subterfuge.  And religion, well if you can’t see the glaringly obvious in that one you are already beyond hope.

The vultures are already picking at our flesh, very soon though just bones will remain, as evidence that we ever existed at all.