Sit in any central Oxford pub on a Saturday night and the stuff you overhear can quickly turn into a Monty Python parody.

Anything from Socrates to the proper use of ‘whom’ can – and almost inevitably will – be examined.

Last weekend, I was sitting in a pub, on doctor’s orders to relax and unwind (honestly), and suddenly discovered myself in the middle of a most interesting conversation about the meaning of life.

We were debating whether there was a difference between our subjective sense of worth our lives have and our objective worth.

Does actively trying to make a difference in the world increase the worth of your own life or are such acts a distraction from the banality of existence.

It was an uplifting chat.

Just as we were having this riveting conversation, I received a notification on my smart-phone regarding a post I’d previously commented on.

It was about a man in Saudi Arabia who has been imprisoned for a decade and sentenced to lashings. His crime?

Speaking out about injustice.

Roughly 400 people had ‘liked’ this post.

Above it was a ‘Bring Back Jeremy Clarkson’ campaign – following the loud-mouth presenter’s infamous fracas with a producer and his bosses.

This post had well over 50,000 followers.

All because people were going to miss watching their favourite TV show.

Sometimes it seems the world really has lost all meaning.