You know, doc, everyone I meet these days is bipolar. It's like the first thing they say. "I'm bipolar." Even better is "I'm diagnosed bipolar," which is, like, way heavier. It's the new trendy mental thing. People in the 80s used to say, "oh, I'm so neurotic." Now they're all bipolar. I think that means they have no personal restraint, no modesty, no recognition that just being in the world without affecting it at that moment is OKAY.
I think it's part of the American Dream, which fosters a complete lack of moderation and, at the same time, a perverse pride in having a lack of moderation. It's very very American. The all-you-can-eat emotion bar. I bet you never get English people telling you they're bipolar. It's unseemly. Who else but Americans would be proud of their lack of self-control? Who else would want to discuss it over dinner?
It's like Americans being either way too fat or too thin and then developing a whole culture around trying to fix that. People in other countries must be shaking their heads, going "what are they thinking?"
It's as if every American has taken that stupid Nike slogan "just do it" and adopted it as a serious lifestyle choice. The Church of Acting Out. They don't realize that for every instance of Just Do It, there should be an equal instance of Just DON'T Do It. Don' t eat it, don't buy it, don't have sex with it, don't scream at it, don't cry about it, don't adopt it, don't promote it, don't sell it, don't wear it, don't discuss it on television, don't worship it, don't quit it, don't lose it, don't do anything for the moment. Just don't do it. Just sit in a damn cafe for half an hour and think about something, like the rest of the world. Know what I mean?
I was waiting for the carribou.
