We live in a world of commiseration and indifference, which are the two faces of the same extremist coin. Commiseration needs to generate the misery its feeds upon – co-miseration as the constant coproduction of misery, sad passions and victimisation on a global scale. Indifference is partly produced by the commiseration imperative of humanism, as a psychological defence, and partly, of course, by competitive or self-centred instincts. In the middle ground is the virtue, said the Greeks. What would be the middle way between commiseration and indifference? Perhaps “conference”, in its etymological Latin sense: to bring together. Let us confer and attune in joyful and thoughtful life-affirmation.