Diplomatic torpor usually reigns in the region : last week when the elected president of one member country the maldives was toppled in a coup there was a resounding silence from the neighbours .
It was only late in the global crisis , when greece admitted to lying about its numbers , that the markets woke up from their torpor into a sudden panic over sovereign risk .
The failure of governments to make progress on a new climate deal in copenhagen last december had already prompted some debate among activists about whether a more confrontational style of campaigning was needed to stir the world from its torpor .
If bitter torpor seems like the default human operating mode out there in the workaday world , may it not just be that a lot of people have jobs they don 't like , jobs they can 't like ?
