Must read for the day:

Must read for the day: Paul Johnson in Forbes as to why we cause ourselves more grief than we need to.

Human beings can be characterized as creatures with a capacity to worry. Anxieties expand automatically to occupy the time and nervous energy we instinctively make available for worry. Yet when we have real, urgent and potentially devastating reasons for anxiety, all lesser and artificial concerns disappear. In Britain during World War II, when the country was in actual danger of being conquered and people were in constant fear of being blown to bits by German bombs, the incidence of psychiatric disorders (as recorded in doctors' offices) fell almost to zero. Cases of suicide or attempted suicide were rare. Buth with the war's end, incidences of both returned to "normal" levels. Politicians and businesses pay too little attention to the human appetite for worrying and our propensity to create artificial anxiety{...}

Go read the whole thing. It's fascinating.