"Attention-deficit disorders seem to abound in modern society, and we don't know the cause"
About this Quote
Marilyn vos Savant’s line lands like a raised eyebrow at the modern world’s favorite diagnosis: we’re drowning in attention-deficit labels, yet our explanations feel suspiciously thin. The phrase “seem to abound” is doing stealthy work. It concedes uncertainty while still implying a cultural flood, as if the condition is multiplying faster than our ability to understand it. That tension gives the quote its bite: the confidence of epidemiology paired with the shrug of causality.
The subtext isn’t anti-science so much as anti-complacency. “We don’t know the cause” sounds humble, but it also functions as an indictment of how quickly society converts complexity into categories. The “we” is broad and strategic: not just doctors or researchers, but parents, teachers, employers, and the media ecosystem that turns a clinical descriptor into a personality type. Vos Savant’s intent reads as a warning about narrative substitution - when causation is unknown, culture rushes in with ready-made stories: screens did it, sugar did it, parenting did it, capitalism did it.
Context matters because “modern society” is a loaded container. It points to environments engineered for distraction - notification economies, fragmented work, constant optimization - while leaving open the possibility that what’s “abounding” is partly recognition and diagnosis, not incidence. The line works because it refuses to let the diagnosis feel settled. It forces a discomforting question: are we witnessing a medical mystery, a cultural mirror, or both?
The subtext isn’t anti-science so much as anti-complacency. “We don’t know the cause” sounds humble, but it also functions as an indictment of how quickly society converts complexity into categories. The “we” is broad and strategic: not just doctors or researchers, but parents, teachers, employers, and the media ecosystem that turns a clinical descriptor into a personality type. Vos Savant’s intent reads as a warning about narrative substitution - when causation is unknown, culture rushes in with ready-made stories: screens did it, sugar did it, parenting did it, capitalism did it.
Context matters because “modern society” is a loaded container. It points to environments engineered for distraction - notification economies, fragmented work, constant optimization - while leaving open the possibility that what’s “abounding” is partly recognition and diagnosis, not incidence. The line works because it refuses to let the diagnosis feel settled. It forces a discomforting question: are we witnessing a medical mystery, a cultural mirror, or both?
Quote Details
| Topic | Mental Health |
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