Sartre was right!

People on prescription drugs. People on illegal drugs. People on religion. People peddling so-called new-age claptrap. People peddling old-age claptrap. Believers in ghosts. Believers in spirits. Believers in some form of universal truth. Believers that all men are created equal? All deranged.

The young are helpless and naive and the old often appear gullible. Wisdom may come with age, but it also needs a bit of practice as well. Those who have relied on others throughout their lives are hardly likely to suddenly acquire oracle-like insight as their minds descend into the nightmare of dementia.

But, young or old, the continued existence of absurd beliefs in provable untruths is astonishing unless you also see human nature for what it really is. Opportunistic, simplistic and fundamentally selfish. Tribally we may form associations and alliances for life but our apparent altruism is often revealed to be based on self-interest or just blind instinct. So, much for the milk of human kindness.

There are many kind souls, yes, but their moderate voices get drowned out amidst the clamour for attention of the multitudes who refuse to display any sense of personal responsibility. And the rest of us are treading water, waiting for the day the floods recede... not any day soon it appears.

So, while we're all really busy - making money, taking money, being deluded, being feeble, being kind, being stupid - the idiot political classes engage in their own set of delusional behaviours. David Cameron is implicated in - gosh - party fund-raising, while the Labour lot feign apoplexy as if cash-for-questions never happened. The government increase taxation and decrease spending and the opposition attack that strategy before saying they would do the same. Meanwhile a lefty idiot tweets that she rejoiced on believing Margaret Thatcher had died and we righty idiots get all pompous about it. Yes, the country is in dire economic straits, by all accounts, but people still have plenty of time to spread dirt and gossip.

Despite all that you might want - or even need - to believe in, the truth is much more simple. There IS no big conspiracy. There IS no right way to govern. There IS no single set of magic measures to make it all better. But one thing's for certain, if you sit around waiting for somebody else to sort out your life you're gonna end up with one mighty sore arse.

You could save yourselves a bit of time with this: