Helpless? All you can do is sit back and watch the train wreck.?

[kentuck]

Is that the way you sometimes feel? Nothing you can say or do will make any difference? There's a lesson too late for the learning? Tell the band to play some music....everything will be OK...Or is it just simple paranoia?

[Cleita]

1. I have felt that way for a long time Kentuck.

I even thought of turning off the noise and going back to my gardening and needlework, oblivious to what is going on around me. However, I really think we are going through a bad spell that we will recover from.

I think maybe we needed this to make us humble and more aware of what is important in life.

[Solly Mack]

2. nods head vigorously

Yes

[Joe Power]

3. Same here

That was a very well articulated description of how I have felt since the "election."

[Warpy]

4. Sometimes the best you can do is shift into passive aggressive mode

and stand back and let them destroy themselves, which they will. Yes, a lot of us are going to be hurt, but that's what happens when a country goes crazy and falls for a bunch of fascist propaganda.

I think the dismal Xmas sales figures are reflecting as much of that attitude as they are the employment situation. That's the aggressive part.

The massive fraud they managed to pull off tells us that things have gone too far for us to affect by aggressive means. Denying them an organized enemy to focus on outside their party right now will be counterproductive, since it will only solidify their support among the moderates in their party. It's time to sit back and watch the show as they feed on their own.

They will, you know. It's inevitable.

[Dulcinea]

14. Remember Newt Gingrich.

He self-destructed, and this posse of freaks will do the same.

[kaitykaity]

5. A pox on all their houses is what I feel.

If enough people are so stupid that they fell for the
Bush bullshit, I say fine. I hope a reign of terror, horror,
crime, and war rains down upon their heads. I hope their
kids go to war and get killed. I hope they lose their jobs
and their homes. I hope they...

Well, you get the drift. I hope it gets bad. As bad as it
can bloody well get.

We ain't seen nothin' yet, people.

[hatrack]

6. That's pretty much where I am

I still do my regular morning posts over on the Environment/Energy board, but I pretty much have given up on anything short of economic collapse, tactical nuclear war or ocean current shutdown rousing American consumers, uh, sorry, I mean "citizens" out of their Zoloft-induced torpor.

Another business bankruptcy? More layoffs? Record debt? More sewage in the rivers? More mercury in the fish? Exploding trade deficits? Record federal deficits? Failing educational systems & nearly unbelievable ignorance with high school & college students? More corporate theft & fraud? More poverty? Growing homelessness? Illegal war? 1,300 KIA, 10,000 WIA and counting?

No one seems to care as long as they get to watch "The Apprentice" while chowing on a Monster Thickburger and jacking off to internet porn.

Fine. So be it.

[DireStrike]

7. Ocean Currents? We don't need no stinkin currents

"Nobody understands these things, it's all somebody's opinion."

Even while temperatures become wildly erratic and all hell breaks loose, the sheep will still keep repeating "nobody knows the real cause." The right wing will continue to pay "experts" and "scientists" to come on TV and tell the people whatever corporations want them to hear.

In short, I think you're too optimistic in what it will take to break people out of their stupor.

[lectrobyte]

8. I feel that way too... Yeah, train wreck. That's probably putting

it too mildly.

[MadHound]

9. No, not helpless, just doing for myself, friends and family first

I figure I've got about five to ten years before the shit really hits the fan. The complete collapse of the economy, the rearing of Peak Oil, the consequences of global warming, etc. etc. And quite frankly, it doesn't matter whether or not a Dem or 'Pug is in power during that time, for they will simply be hauling water for their corporate masters, who pull all those strings.

Thus, having got a small amount of acreage, I'm proceding to make myself self sufficient, putting in wood heat, 2kw or more worth of solar, establishing a large garden and orchard, getting down my recipe for biodiesel, perhaps even putting in a windmill. These and other measures for the survival of me and those closest to me are top priority.

I have, in many ways, given up this fight. Yes, I will still attend protests against the war, for my conscience will not allow me to do otherwise. And I will continue to work with and contribute to the Greens, for I think that they are really the only hope of salvation this country has left in the political arena. But my heart is really not in it. After busting my head against the brick wall of politics for the past thirty plus years, I really see nothing for it. This country is still descending towards an ugly end, the majority of people in this country are clueless, and they won't be waking up until it is way too late.

So thus I am making my preparations now so that I may be better able to survive later. At first, people in my circle of friends and family thought that I was just being strange and paranoid, now they are making their own preparations. We are going to get slammed people, unlike anything that we've seen before, and the more you prepare now, the better off you will be. Pay down as much debt as you can, and prepare to live in a world that will be devoid of the modern energy grid as we know it. If you can, get out of the city, for that will be chaos. Find a spot of land, a few acres that you can build on and sustain yourself with. Yes, this may be the rantings of a paranoid fool, I've never discounted that possibility. But even if this scenario never comes about, at least I will be living a lifestyle that impacts this poor world as little as possible.

[nascarblue]

10. Yeah I do feel that way, but Im ready for action. Organization is lacking

[kerry-is-my-prez]

11. Until the American people wake up and the media does their jobs.

There's not a lot we can do.

[BrotherBuzz]

12. Yep, and I choose to view it from the high ground....

Uh, a grassy knoll?

[catmandu57]

13. I think I'd have a better chance

of jumping in front of a speeding car and stopping it cold with my bare hands than stopping the chaos that's coming. No, I'm just watching the wreck, I'll have a better chance of surviving where I live, but yes I do feel like I'm just going through the motions.