As Jeremy's predicament intensifies – watchers across the road, followers in the street, interference with his appointments, at one point a lost mobile phone rediscovered in the refrigerator with the message "phones listen" on its screen – we realise that Jeremy's plight is at least in part an aspect of a much larger one.
Their jailhouse plight is at least partly the result of the well-intentioned shutdown of many big state psychiatric hospitals several decades ago, once deemed "snake pits," leaving municipal jails like Rikers in New York and Cook County in Chicago to fill the void of mental healthcare for the indigent.
The plight of the latter, at least, is a result of U.S. actions in the late 1960's.
Putting aside for a moment the reasons why we have so many people struggling in these categories – and who is responsible for their plight – her speech is at least indicative of the growing number of people who are now worried about the consequences of an unequal and divided society.
Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, who is battling hardliners over various social and cultural norms, has remained mute on the plight of Rezaian and at least half a dozen other Iranian journalist arrested in recent months, including female journalists, Marzieh Rasouli and Saba Azarpeik.
But it was the plight of the Yazidis — at least hundreds of whom were killed by IS as they captured thousands of women and girls — that finally drew the US into battle against the extremist group.
At least the plight of the poor makes for an interesting subplot and red herring.
"Even the most cowardly and cynical of politicians ought to start to pay attention to the plight of the priced out, at least on a national level.
For years now, postdocs' plight has resembled the weather, at least according to Mark Twain's famous description: Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.
Yesterday, for a few hours at least, the plight of a small indigenous people was given centre stage on Twitter.
