Decomposed,
I want to apologize for using the word 'ignorant' and have changed it in the initial post. I agree there are depressing stats out there yet "A person who doesn't marginalize will be driven right out of his mind" and in doing so becomes mentally numb to the massive numbers of everything - good and bad.
Having B+ blood I try to look for the positives in everything and sometimes to my overly optimistic detriment. I guess to an extent we are all, as you said, "functional slaves" are we not? After all, we all work (or worked) and traded part of that '100 very short years' for linen paper with serial numbers.
PEACE