Since the dawn of humanity, we have had two intermingling parts of our mind (oversimplified to make a point here). We have the part of our mind that is tied to reality, and we have the part of our mind that can dream up anything we want to imagine, which moves us away from pure reality.
As long as our standard of living is predominantly in the physiological needs level, out of necessity, the part of us that is tied to reality is dominant. This is the bottom two rows of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Of course, the imagining side comes out whenever we are satiated, but generally is held in check by the reality of needing to eat etc.
History tells us that whenever our standard of living gets far enough away from simple physiological needs, where we use most of our time just to survive, the imagining part of our brain uses more and more of our time, and our reality becomes less and less tied to physical reality, and we can get lost in vain imaginings. In fact, it correlates with the level of health in the society.
In history, it is like a pendulum, where every time we swing too far into these vain imaginings, it lands us back at a place of mere subsistence.
If we as human beings do not learn how to find a happy medium between these two, we will just swing back and forth like this pendulum ad infinitum.
That is the truth of the matter….
Reality is Dharma 
This makes sense. And I think it also relates to where we are in life. For example, when I had 5 kids at home, I had to function at levels 1 and 2 (and perhaps 3); there just wasn’t time to aim much for Esteem and Self-Actualization. Now… more time for the latter … and I think is resulting in those “vain imagining” and health issues. Need to find better balance ….
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