I have very specific tastes when it comes to books, and I don't tend to pay much attention when people say I should read things. If I want to read it then I will; nothing anybody says will usually convince me otherwise. My wife, however, is very persuasive in her own way, so after several years of prompting I finally relented and read Huxley's Brave New World. And it gave me word I hadn't realised I was missing:
Soma.
In the book soma is the drug fed to the masses to keep them blissed out and under control. But it neatly applies to so much of our modern life that I feel it should be a more widely-used term. Commercial television is soma. Spectator sports are soma. Fast food is soma. Alcohol and the drinking culture are soma. Even (light your flamers) religion is soma. All of them drugs designed to keep us distracted from the harsher realities of our existence so that we play nicely with each other and maintain the social order.
Personally I've never been a fan of drug addiction.
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