Help!!!! I'm having an existential crisis!

Does anything matter?

How many of you, like me, read about this bio-labs lie, or read about the leak being traced to the White House, or the phone-jamming being traced to the White House, or the Katrina tape, or Cheney shooting his friend in the face -- I could go on forever, like reading "My Pet Goat" and doing nothing, or reading the PDB and doing nothing, or even the Guckert scandal -- and your next thought is, okay, so he'll be resigning soon, or they'll be getting fired soon -- after all, Bill Clinton got impeached over a blow job -- and then the next big event is... NOTHING HAPPENS?

Is it gradual desensitization? If this were the first day after the stolen 2000 election, would folks be marching in the streets over the loss of our democracy? How many of us will want to move to Mexico soon, to live in a country that still has some semblance of democracy, and the ability to actually elect one's president?

They used to have an edge. Now they are hardly more than blind consumer zombies who care only about how much shit they can stuff into their boxes. My parents and grandparents fought on the streets for labor rights. Now, people are complacent... I think that this country has been destroyed by the move to a credit based system informed only by marketing. Everything is driven by corporate bottom lines, and that translates into widespread brainwashing by a market sponsored media.

That's why we have a bunch of zombies running around thinking they just want to be entertained. The media has turned them into a bunch of non-thinking children.

,...behavior. *shakes head*

I think Bush has taken hits over all of those issues, and people have been in the streets.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

I think the middle of the road of Americans are starting to wake up from their 5 year slumber....

We won't move to Mexico or Canada...we will fight for America........we will fight for Democracy...and the removal of the Treasonous Bastards...

"Hitler's Willing Executioners"

Television, I think, has played a major role in lulling Americans into a stupor.

I think I heard the other day that the average kid watches 3 hours of TV a day, and spends far less time than that studying.

We seem, as a people, to be more interested in who is going to win American Idol and what' going on with the kids on "Real World" than we do with doing something to help our country.

I don't begrudge anyone their viewing habits, but for crying out loud, at least try to temper it with some intellect. I don't know what it's going to take to make people realize that they can't rely on the tv news for factual information....Perhaps WWIII will wake them up. Unfortunately, then it'll be too late.

Welcome to DU.

Some days, I feel like a total nihilist.

So I take a bath and have a cup of tea and do some painting and play with my daughter and basically take a "personal day" away from worrying about the fate of the world.

It doesn't cure the problem, but it shines up my dulled sense of right and wrong for the next day.

for many people it's not because they don't see it, they just can't deal with it. They feel powerless.
Most people don't really understand that we are experiencing the loss of Democracy. They don't see the big picture. They only know that gas prices are up and so-and-so lost his job. But it's sinking in slowly...that something is drastically wrong.

I think people KNOW that protests don't seem to work. But they don't know what else to do. It's paralysis more than anything, for lack of a solution.

I have days where I read one story after another of the things these liars and thieves and killers are doing to this country and to the world, and I just can't take it all in. I want to cry or scream or something.... and I write letters and sign petitions and go to demonstrations and talk with all my friends about this outrage or that outrage. And yet, it continues and continues and another day comes where I read again about more things that are taken away, one more person who is stopped by Homeland Security, one more person who is delayed at the airports, one more person who is filing suit through ACLU for torture and abduction, hundreds more people dead in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Middle East, one more threat of war and destruction, one more distortion from this administration told as if it were truth. How much more can we take before it all comes tumbling down? I truly believe we are watching the downfall of this country, much like the downfall of other empires and countries that were once so powerful. The biggest difference is that we have so much more military might and a ruling elite that won't give up anything, that think this military might can control the world. In fact, it can't really control it, but it can destroy it. Will they take that final step and nuke Iran? Don't know, afraid to believe it, but afraid to ignore the possibility. My friends sometimes tell me to take the weekend off and stop reading all the news. But even so, it's still there when I come back. And inside I feel compelled to do something, one more letter, one more demo, even if I find it hard to believe it will make a difference. Doing nothing, however, I know won't make a difference and makes me feel worse. So just like the rest of us, I struggle on trying to believe that we will come out of this on the other side before I die. After all, we have lived through the depression, WWII and Hitler, the bombing of Japan, McCarthy, this is just another sad time for the world. I try not to give up hope.

...doing nothing makes me feel worse. So I plod along doing what I can. Your friends' advice is good --to take breaks, which I do. But some of us just can't stop keeping the vigil when we know someone (or a country) we care about is in serious trouble. It is profoundly depressing to live in a state of vigil for an extended period of time. It's only natural to want to feel GOOD about your country. Most people want to feel connected to a community that "works," that makes sense, that doesn't perpetrate evil and reward corruption.

I still have hope at this point, because so many Americans seem to be waking up and realizing the seriousness of the situation. Finally. And because of their misdeeds too numerous to list, the Bushies are sputtering, flailing and floundering. People are seeing for themselves that the Emperor is naked. Most of the country is hoping and praying for big changes. I don't feel so alone anymore.

You don't truly appreciate what you've got til it's gone. And a lot of things we took for granted are gone. Maybe we had to learn this the hard way...before we can create the America we really want to live in...to do that we need to hold both parties feet to the fire. There will be opportunity in the downfall of the B* regime.

:grouphug:

Welcome!

Mission Accomplished!

:rant: