If we seem like the kind of people who would name their baby Trig, we have been doing something wrong.
Ukraine's Euromaidan movement is right: Europe is the future, even if we seem temporarily to have forgotten the fact.
"If we seem not to like Britain today, the feeling will surely be reciprocated" ran a favourite modernisers' mantra.
"If we seem to get excited about something, he'll say, 'No, it's a poll, it doesn't matter.
Despite the complaints, it's quite possible that, if we seem needy enough or worthy enough, he will offer us money, or work, without our having to ask.
If we seem likely to forget, a rear admiral reminds us with a letter that is about as subtle as a Mafia funeral card".
So if we seem a little like Russia these days it's because for the past few years we, too, have been operating without the rules and institutions of a healthy market economy.
If we seem today to have let some of Britten's ideals slip, that may say more about our shortcomings as a culture than about Britten's greatness and achievement, then and now.
And on a personal basis, a psychiatric diagnosis may be welcome (having a name and a treatment plan for what's bothering us can be comforting) or not (are we really suffering from a mental disorder if we seem depressed after a family member dies?).
