Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers: The Acclaimed Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping

by Robert M. Sapolsky

away pain, depression, fear, anxiety, and stress. This dual purpose transitions us to the next chapter with its theme that society does not evenly distribute healthy opportunities for pleasure, or sources of fear and anxiety. It is hard to “just say no” when life demands a constant vigilance and when there are few other things to which to say “yes.” The premise of this book is that we humans, especially we westernized humans, have come up with some pretty strange sources of negative emotions—worrying about and being saddened by purely psychological events that are displaced over space and time. But we westernized humans have also come up with some strange sources of positive emotions. Once, during a concert of cathedral organ music, as I sat there amid that tsunami of sound getting gooseflesh, I was struck with a thought—way back when, for a medieval peasant, this must have been the loudest human-made sound they would ever experience, something that would be awe-inspiring in ways we can no longer imagine. No wonder they signed up for the religion being proffered.