All our existencial mess could be supposed to exist since the begginning of humanity, 3000000 years ago, but indeed the trouble started not then; but when people began to embrace their faculties and logic, to make this concept easily understandable, I will refer to an excerpt of the Principia Discordia--You do not have to be a member of Hail Discordia to understand the following text, but if you desire information about it, e-mail me and I'll be glad to help you.
In the year 1166 B.C., a malcontented Hunchbrain by the name of Greyface, got it into his head that the universe was as humorless as he, and he began to teach that play, and romance and fun were sinful because they contradicted the ways of Serious Order. "Look at all the order around you," he said. And from that, he deluded honest men to beleive that reality was a straightjacket affair and not the happy romance as men had known it.
It is not presently understood why men were so gullible at tht particular time, for absolutely no one thought to observe all the disorder around them and conclude just the opposite. But anyway, Greyface and his followers took the game of playing at life more seriously than they took life itself and were known to even destroy other living beings whose ways of life differed of their own.
The unfortunate result of this is that mankind has since been suffering from a psychological and spiritual imbalance. Imbalance causes frustration, and frustration causes fear. And fear makes for a bad trip. Man(and woman) has been on a bad trip for a long time now.
It is called the CURSE OF GREYFACE
The above text is a metaphore, what it means is that some time ago, the leading part of society imposed rules for their own benefit, and the rest of humanity stupidly followed; actually, many people feel lost in the mess that our society is and don't want to follow, but people who have done that suffer even more, for they are considered criminals, or rebels. A clear example is that of the kid who decides not to study because he doesnt like to. His parents force him to study, because they suppose he will fail in life if he doesn't. The parents think it is good for him to study because their own parents did the same, so that way our society is like an enormous chain of people following each other, but deep inside everyone has a desire to stop following and be free. The source of the problem is that when someone decides to stop following, others dont have the courage to free themselves also, but instead they act a societies slaves and on their on they enslave the rebel again. Maybe on a distant future many will decide to be free, and the "CURSE OF GREYFACE" will be finally over.