OPINION: Seasonal affective disorder is referred to by the NHS as “winter depression” – The Christmas glow has faded, spring is miles away and the Guinness shortage is still barring my efforts to forget about it
It’s cold, it’s grey, and it will be dark about five minutes after waking up – oh, and Donald Trump and his posse of crypto-currency man boys who never grew up but did get filthy, stinking rich, are in charge of the world again.
As I write this I am cold. Not because the heating doesn’t work but because it is expensive to put on. My housemates are all out and I think they will be annoyed with me if I put it on for just one person. This, on this bluest of Blue Mondays, starts things off on what can only ever be a half-filled tank, a car in a race never permitted to go above third gear.
Forgive me for being cynical but it’s hard not to be. Blue Monday, the third Monday in January, is often described as ‘the most depressing day of the year’ and rightly so, especially this year.
Seasonal affective disorder – which has the wonderfully apt acronym SAD – is referred to by the NHS as “winter depression” and why wouldn’t it be? The Christmas glow has long since faded, spring is miles away and the Guinness shortage is still curtailing my efforts to forget about it all.
There are disasters and horror breaking out around the world, from the trenches of Ukraine to the agonising frailty of the ceasfire in Gaza to the fires in California and so much more.
This Monday though, things are worse still.
This Monday is particularly blue because of events going on in a country I don’t live in, the other side of an ocean I can’t swim across, with a man I have never met. If the inauguration of Donald Trump serves to remind you of one thing, regardless of your political viewpoint, let it be that the actions of the ultra rich and powerful are so deeply interlinked with your life that there is almost nothing you can do to escape it.
The drastic solution to this is, for most people, the old cabin in the woods escape fantasy – but even a little nook in the depths of the highlands is still going to be affected by a nuke dropped on Edinburgh, if that doomsday scenario ends up being the one they choose.
The value of your money, the news you receive and what your social media shows you, lies in the hands of Donald Trump and his merry band of billionaire bros. As Joe Biden bows out, his words about the rise of a new American Oligarchy feels hard to ignore – is this really so different to the billionaire oil barons circling around Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin?
If the American dream is that anyone from any background can rise to the top through determination and hard work, then first they have to become rich – filthy rich. This is the secret password to be allowed into the club: money. Trump’s new cabinet has the most billionaires ever, a clear sign that the next few years are going to be dictated by the whims of the people who already have a lot of it, and will no doubt make decisions based on their own ability to keep hold of it.
In 2021, the Princeton University department of economics reported that in the US “The top 1% holds nearly as much wealth as the bottom 90%,” a number that has now, according to reports, tipped over the edge since then.
This lucky few, this band of billionaire brothers ushered in on this Bluest of Mondays, can have little in common with the average American, little overlapping needs that will see the sorted go out on a limb for those that need the help. As for the average British person, who this new monied dynasty will so clearly impact, forget about it.
The wealth gap is nothing new, it has defined politics for millenia, but wasn’t this something we’d all hoped would get better, wasn’t this something we were working on? Now we are at a new low. Now we’ve given up on all efforts to pretend that it wasn’t just money doing the talking. At least we’re being honest with ourselves. Happy Monday.