The Widening Gyre: Is Our Society Evolving or Regressing?

In spite of all the hype about mental health, physical health and us being a kinder, gentler society, are we crueler than 40 years ago?

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“Do not go gentle into that good night,” Dylan Thomas bellowed, defiantly crying as his father’s light guttered out. “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

I’m over 50, and I am bordering on rage too—not just at death’s theft, but at a society that gilds its savagery with care, mists its barbarism in wellness-speak, bleating about mental health and health in general while growing harder, more distant and digital, meaner, and more savage than 40 years ago.

Thomas raged for one soul; my rage cuts broader—its institutions, streets, and lies—slouching toward Bethlehem, as Yeats foresaw, where “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

We are not kinder, not more giving; we’ve regressed into a crueller, hollower shell masked by polished branding.

The Health Debacle: Fatter, Uglier, Morally Dead

Health parallels the fall in mental health and rights—more talk, less substance. We eat more garbage—processed sludge, sugar slop—and we’re fatter than ever. In 1985, 14.1% of Canadians were obese; by 2022, it’s 29.4% (StatsCan). Sugar consumption is up 20% since the ‘80s; fast food sales hit $34 billion in 2023 (IBISWorld), a 40% surge from 2000, adjusted. Diabetes climbed from 7.6% in 1985 to 11% in 2023. This isn’t aesthetics—it’s moral decay. Forty years ago, a meal was honest—meat, spuds, no sanctimony. Now, we gorge on processed filth.

The Mental Health Sham: A Cruel Light Fades

Mental health is our modern idol—hashtags, seminars, posters proclaiming “You Are Enough”—yet it’s a farce. In 1985, anxiety disorders gripped 5% of Canadians; by 2023, it’s 12.2% (StatsCan). Depression? 4.7% to 10.1%. Suicide rates for men over 50 rose from 20.4 per 100,000 in 1981 to 23.7 in 2021 (PHAC). We shout awareness, but the light dims. Why?

Institutions shed soul-to-soul ties, offering digitised bots that parrot false kindness, respect, inclusion, and wellness as a hollow prayer.

In 1985, despite Thatcher and Reagan’s cleavers and the Cold War’s fog, there was gritty decency: grief had room, health wasn’t a sermon. Today, we drown in Bell Let’s Talk platitudes, but our minds sicken, our bodies degrade, and “gas the Jews” rings out on Toronto streets.

Charity?

1985 CEOs earned 62 times the average worker's salary; in 2023, it will be 246 times (CCPA).

Charity? 29% gave in 1985 and 19% in 2022 (CanadaHelps), with giving as a GDP share slipping from 0.53% to 0.47%. We’re stingier, hoarding while we tweet #BeKind.