sopranos and the perception of reality

i just saw last week's sopranos and a comment tony's son made in his therapist's office stuck with me. his therapist noted that he seemed depressed again, and the son responded with "why shouldn't i be depressed? everybody should be depressed. everything's so fucked. there's so many things to be depressed about."

he's right. the world doesn't function under the principle of justice, just the laws of science. completely amoral laws.

quasi-scientific ramble: perceiving the world optimistically is a function of our neurochemistry. our brains drug us into the delusion that there's a fundamental 'rightness' steering the course of events. research has proven this, indicating that 'normal' people have higher levels of a certain neurotrasmitter, serotonin, than individuals that have been diagnosed with depression. thing is, other studies have shown that individuals that are mildly depressed see the world more realistically than 'happy' people.

interesting.

our brains 'fool' us into believing things are better than they are so that our actions aren't paralyzed by the myriad cruel injustices that characterize our existence.

and they say drugs are bad...