Severe psychic distress: living under Bush is changing us in profound ways

[bacchant]

Seem to be quite a few of these this morning, thought I'd join the party.

<RANT ON>

3 years ago I would never have considered living in another country, such a concept just didn't exist in my universe. No matter where I traveled it was always great to come back home to the good ol' USA. Sure we're not perfect, but I was always happy to be here in what I regarded as the greatest country in the world. Now...

I've changed, the last four years has changed me. My American identity has been ripped from me like a baby from it's mothers arms and replaced by something I don't recognize. I seem to have lost my connection to this place. This is Bush's legacy; his zeal to artificially strengthen America has eroded it's very fiber. The relentless anxiety, paranoia, distrust, confusion, division, distraction... of the Bush years has taken it's toll. This place is a mess, they've fucked it up for everybody. Either he goes or I go.

<RANT OFF>

[Burma Jones]

1. Me Too.......n/t

[Sperk]

2. I hear ya, but it WILL be Bush that goes. It will take a while, it will

be a great fight, but the people will prevail. I still have faith in the American People, they may be a little slow on the uptake but once they catch on to how they have been conned and abused they will take back their country.

[LiberalVoice]

4. They won't catch on.

I have said this a thousand times and each day that passes it becomes more and more obvious. The American people are pound for pound the dumbest people on the planet. If they do catch on it will be too late. The last 4 years is a perfect example that the American people will not do a damn thing for justice unless it starts bcoming a burden on their lifestyle. They don't give a shit about innocent people dying in another country, but OH NO, "if someone kills innocents in the Big Bad US they're gonna have to pay!" Go Murikkka!

(Edit: Spelling)

[bacchant]

6. They might catch on, but the cultural forces that allowed this to happen

in the first place are, unfortunately, here to stay.

[truth2power]

7. That's been my observation, too.

I've talked to a lot of people and listened and watched. And I've come to the same conclusion you have. And here is the fundamental problem: Your average American has no understanding of anything that doesn't affect them personally.

Naomi Klein, in her book, "Fences and Windows" talks about the "self-referential" attitude of Americans. "...victims of U.S. agression also bleed", she says. But because of our complicit media, Americans "are only getting themselves reflected back, over and over: Americans recovering, Americans cheering, Americans praying. A media house of mirrors, when what we all need are more windows on the world." (171)

I've had this experience many times. I try to humanize the ordinary Iraqis that we are killing by saying that they clean house, send their kids to school, make dinner etc., just as we do. Without fail, the response I get is not dispute or anger. It's simply a vacant stare, as if it doesn't compute. There is truly no "there" there. That is more scary than anything.

All this is by way of saying that the Americans you speak of will never wake up, because it will never "become a burden on their lifestyle", which is the only thing that matters. If Bush wins (or is re-selected) in Nov., there will still be all the Coca Cola they can drink, or access to their favorite brand of beer, and enough reality shows on TV to keep them in a permanent stuporous state. Their lifestyles won't change. Why should they care??

[bacchant]

11. Wow, you hit the nail on the head. n/t

[Kanary]

12. Sounds like a good book! It's like the quote I posted yesterday,

from an author who said that when Americans want to learn from history, they only look at their *own* history.. they don't look at the history from the rest of the world. Sounds simple, but it's a very profound truth. Plus, we don't even do very well with our *own* history.

Thanks for posting that quote...... I'm going to have to look for that book.

Kanary

[LiberalVoice]

3. EXACTLY

I have lived all over the world and I always looked forward to coming back to the US. Now however I have no reservation in leaving this country if Bush wins or they reinstate the draft. Call me a draft dodger if you want but I will not fight a war to keep this country on top or to fatten the wallets of the * regime. They can all kiss my ass!

[Stanchetalarooni]

5. I get the feeling that it was a fucked place all along.

All these military bases around the world didn't just spring up over night. The black ops didn't just begin in 2001. People all around the world have known for a long, long time about America. We the People, we're the last to know.
There is no longer any denying that we have been an abusive Big Brother to others in the world.

[Kanary]

9. You're absolutely right. Blaming one person, or one group

is exactly what the other side does, which we abhor.

We're all complicit, in our own ways. It won't substantially change until we can begin to see that.

Usually, it's the people on the bottom who see that the most clearly. Yet, they have been effectively purged, not only from the DEM party, but from forums like these.

Kanary

[Deja Q]

8. Not to forget greed and our encouraged consumption of oil...

Things are way out of control. The satanics republicans are silently cheering in glee. I doubt anyD em can repair the damage in time, and by then it'll have been 4 years and they'll slither their way back into power.

We need to go on the offensive and go after them with every word possible so that they will NEVER be trusted again. Or at least be in the position to say "I TOLD YOU SO" when they reclaim power and everything falls. Whether we do say it is one thing, but either way we need the masses to figure it out.

[diamond14]

10. in DC, my neighbor committed suicide...the cops think she killed herself

last Sunday (August 22)...but nobody knew until the smell became overwhelming...the police unlocked the apartment door on Wednesday Aug. 25th...the smell still wafts through the entire building....

she was horrified and frightened by bush* 'orange terror' alerts, the anti-aircraft guns openly displayed in DC, the military troops heavily armed all over OUR Nation's Capital...she wanted to go somewhere where without bush* 'terror' alerts...

it is too sad that bush* is terrifying everyone here in OUR Nation's Capital...


on edit: DC has been under a bush* ordered "orange alert" for weeks now...it is essentially 'marshall law', citizens are grabbed and searched just for walking down the street, cars are stopped for no reason, many American Citizens are being thrown in jail under the USAPATRIOT act, with NO legal charges or recourses, for no reason other than that they MAY be suspecious!....you cannot go anywhere here without being stopped by para-militaries and questioned and terrified until you pee in your pants....arrests are very common now...

there's nobody strong enough to stop this bush* terror...some are pushed to suicide...their blood is also on bush*'s hands...

[Kanary]

13. Plus, being isolated in an isolating society.

Fear alone doesn't usually cause suicide. It's the isolation of this society, *combined* with fear that does a person in.

Kanary

[diamond14]

14. bush* has everyone thinking that their own neighbors and friends are

terrorists...bush* posts numbers all over DC for you to CALL THE POLICE on your neighbors, as possible terrorists....people here in DC have become much like nazi germany....afraid that anyone they meet might either BE A TERRORIST, or call the police to turn them in...if you have a business competitor, or a colleague you don't like, the easiest solution now is to call bush* agents and have that person taken away....bush* terror ADDS to the already isolation of a big city...and now bush* sends out his AGENTS to infiltrate any political social meeting, or threaten people at their front doors....

[BeFree]

15. Yer kidding, right?

Is what you say actually happening, or are ya stretching it a bit?

If true, it's the beginning of a repeat of history, the history of Germany in 1930.

Ya gotta be kidding.

[diamond14]

17. please come to OUR Nation's Capital and experience the bush* terror

program for yourself...and you will never, ever suggest that anyone is 'kidding' or 'exaggerating'....your eyes will be open....

if you want background...read the USAPATRIOT ACT(it has NOTHING to do with Patriotism...bush* initialed this act as a deception, and always calls it the Patriot act...the REALITY: act is called "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism", U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T.....another bush* scam like 'clean air act', 'healthy forest' act....while we choke here in DC on Mercury contaminated air, and lead contaminated water...we also suffer the loss of OUR civil rights under bush* scam 'USA PATRIOT'.....

under bush* ORANGE alert, you can read on the HOMELAND SECURITY web page what that means....and bush* has implemented it in full force...come visit the beautiful Smithsonian Museums, and have your bags and your body searched while some get dragged away to cavity searches and terrifying questioning by armed military in back rooms...some get imprisoned....we'd LOVE to have some visitors...come see us....police and military are randomly stopping people just for walking on the street, and some people are taken away...under USAPATRIOT, these 'disappeared people' have NO right to a phone call, a lawyer, or even to know what the charges are...they can be imprisoned forever without anyone even knowing their location....you'll find the bush* phone numbers to 'turn in your friends and neighbors as terrorists' posted in every paper, hear the numbers on all radio stations, and posted prominently on flashing warning over freeways...the phone numbers are EVERYWHERE....

you are naive to feel that bush* has not fully implemented all these USAPATRIOT moves under his current "orange" terror alerts...come see the armed military with BIG WEAPONS, come look at the anti-aircraft guns, photos NOT allowed or YOU will be disappeared...tourists are NO LONGER allowed any photos in DC, barricades are everywhere, military in full force...I call that MARSHALL LAW....

[Kanary]

18. Yeah, we can blame it all on *

Doesn't make it true, nor stop suicides, nor change our own world.

Kanary

[bacchant]

16. I agree

What I find ironic is how Bush's great unifying nationalism is, for many, disenfranchising. We're not united at all.