Are Americans a Broken People?

Quote:

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Originally posted by SignyM:
I just realized ... here comes my DOH! moment... that the system goes on as it does not because people are "broken" but because the system BREAKS PEOPLE- deliberately.

It's not JUST poverty, and lack of time, and fear of change, and typical human lack of large-scope initiative, and willingness to cooperate, and confabulation about what appear to be "environmental" factors... and other relatively passive, systemic, impersonal factors.

Uh uh.

Right now, even as we "speak", there ARE people busy planning how to "spin" this and that, how to "break" populations, how to get us accept the yoke w/o even realizing it.

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Hey Signy,

What ya got there is a pretty important insight but beware: understand that these folks seemingly running the show are, themselves, broken. Nobody wins in such a system, no one is protected, no one is safe; only the system benefits, only the system is protected and only the system endures while we either serve her, are served to her or do what we can to opt out.

Don't make the mistake of the conspiracist and jump to the conclusion that someone is masterminding this mess.

I'm reminded of my old analogy of the "alcoholic conspiracy." You know, how all the alcoholics in the world go to meetings in their safe houses (called "bars") and plot to undermine the happiness of mankind. How else to explain the consistency of their attack, the sytematic destruction of families and communities, unless they are being ordered to beat their wives, run over pedestrians and periodically programed by the PTB (powers that booze) to self-terminate against neighborhood trees.

One needs no conspiracy to account for the cumulative affect of drunks world wide. One only needs to know the pathology. And what's our cultural pathology, our addiction, our fearless leader? Any Guesses? Do I have to Give you a hint? Gee...

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Ayep, you get that in any oppressive system of any kind, Alice Miller does a hell of a lot better job exploring that than I do - but I do a right damn good job of teaching kids to protect themselves from being as messed up as their parents.

Of course, given the importance of intervention earlier than that, this is of limited effectiveness, but when THOSE kids grow up and have kids they are less likely to corrupt their own, and so on, and so forth.

Once again, Pullman nails it.
"Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of another. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those of us who want to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those of us who want to obey and be humble and submit."

The reason I am so fond of that quote is that when kept in mind it allows one to easily determine what side of it someones actions are on, and while I don't subscribe to the yes/no on/off fallacy that enemies cannot become allies, it's a useful point for determining what actions to support.

Oh, and Niki - at one point I used to do "community service" (Juvie courts favorite penalty for the heinous act of self defense) through an organization similar to that, carrying a sweet old loveable lap kitty to the elderly and chatting with them, which also gave me some wonderful insights onto more recent history cause I got to talk with folks who were actually there for it - who themselves were so tremendously pleased at a youngster who was attentive and willing to listen, that they gave me a personal perspective on it I could never have gotten from books, like the mass-pyschosis-hysteria fear of the McCarthy days, and the horror and sorrow of what happened to Kennedy, the rage at the depth of Nixon and the governments betrayals, etc.

And yet these were also the folk who saddled me with their debts and problems, so I always have to struggle with a dichotomy of feelings for my supposed elders, although during Katrina what folks were with us on that evacuated them by priority when FEMA left em swing, one old geezer was a former navy vet who signaled our little bass boat from a window with a flashlight, a quite resourceful man who chose to actively assist us rather than simply accept rescue.

People are who they are, not black or white, but a whole rainbow of shades of grey.

-F

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Rue, I don't think dollar-bill handouts are THE answer, but that's only because I don't believe that there is always ONE correct, all-encompassing answer for every problem. Dollar handouts are a HELP, nothing more - but if more people helped, more people would BE helped. And that's going some ways towards an answer.

Soup kitchens likewise are not the answer, but they're not a hindrance or an obstacle, either. I give dollars when I can, take non-perishables to the hobo camps (or "Obamavilles", if that's what we're calling them now), donate to charities what I can spare. None if it is as much as I *should* do or *could* do, but all of it is more than nothing.

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Cavalier: reeeelly good point, thanx for making it, and making it so cogently.

Frem: Gosh, are you that much younger than I? I lived through the Kennedy and Nixon stuff, and remember it myself all too well, but I'm only 61! Makes me feel reeeely old to hear you talk about folks in convalescent places giving you insight into them...eeep! ;o)

Mike: That's precisely how I feel.

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