Epi-pensive

I read, sometime in the retrievable past, that the current proliferation of allergies in Western society is suspected to be due to our unusually (compared with most of human history) hygienic environment: the immune system doesn't have enough to do, so it goes a bit squirrelly and starts fighting imaginary invaders.

It occurred to me, sometime around May 1, that the Occupy movement is something very similar, on a political and sociological level.  We've had peace and safety for two generations now, and nothing loftier than our own comfort and convenience to work for.  Sounds lovely, but, being human, we languish without something bigger than ourselves to give us purpose.  How many imaginary crises have come and gone in the last few decades?  Remember the hole in the ozone?  Y2K? SARS?  Global warming?  And now we have the intellectually and morally bankrupt Occupiers, who don't seem to know what they want, other than to be free of the behavioural norms of civilized society.  And to get everything for free.

Sadly, the only thing likely to cure these yutzes is a major war.  A real war, a clear and present threat to their physical safety.  Their heads would snap back into common-sense mode pretty quickly.  Or they'd be conscripted and end up as cannon fodder.  Either way, the whining would stop and the streets would be clean.  But it's bitter medicine.