Here's a little blurb from Douglas Adams "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy". I find this very apropos these last few days:
One of the things Ford Prefect found hard to understand about human beings was their habit of continually stating and re-stating the very, very obvious, as in: "It's a nice day", "You're very tall" or "So this is it; we are going to die". At first, Ford formed a theory to account for this strange behaviour. 'If human beings don't keep exercising their lips' he thought 'their mouths probably seize up'. After a while he abandoned this theory in favour of a new one. 'If they don't keep exercising their lips' he thought 'their brains start working'. In fact, this second theory is more literally true of the Belcerebon People of Kakrafoon Kappa. The Belcerebons used to cause great resentment amongst neighbouring races by being one of the most enlightened, accomplished and above all quite civilizations in the galaxy. As a punishment for this behaviour, which was held to be offensively self-righteous and provocative, a galactic tribunal inflicted on them that most cruel of all social diseases: telepathy. Now, in order to prevent themselves from broadcasting every slightest thought that crosses their minds to anyone within a five-mile radius, they have to talk loudly and continuously about the weather, their little aches and pains, thee match this afternoon and what a noisy place Kakrafoon has suddenly become.
I know my brain has stopped working.
Trace