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We have created what amounts to a diagnostic-industrial-government complex - a self-reinforcing system in which everyone benefits from more diagnoses except the patients.
The 20th century was the age of diagnosis. The 21st must become the age of recovery, measured not by how many people we enrol in the mental health system, but by how many no longer need it.
From burned-out psychiatrists to disengaged students and collapsing social bonds, Australia’s many crises share a hidden common cause: a deep, systemic exhaustion born of long-running exploitation and denied meaning.
Road deaths feel worse, but the rate keeps falling. Population growth skews headlines. Better regional roads and behaviour, not fine-heavy policing, will save more lives.
Covid reshaped society on a scale unseen since World War II - but instead of sparking cultural transformation, it left fear, obedience, and a troubling silence in its wake.
