Have we become a nation of whipped puppies?

[Armstead]

A question came to mind while watching the news about how the muckity-mucks at banks and other financial services are living even larger while the rest of us are struggling -- and even after these institutions have taken huge taxpayer bailouts.

Have we become a nation of Whipped Puppies?

Are we suffering from a collective case of Learned Helplessness?

We are being subjected to so many indignities, rip-offs and other abuses. If we were a nation of Manly Men and Strong Women, the bastids could not get away with this crap.

Nowdays, we have become such a nation of wimps that the powerful and their minions don't have to worry about regulation or even public opinion.

"You don't like the fact that my mega-bank refuses to give you a mortgage, while I buy my seventh million-dollar home? Tough. Do something about it sucker!...Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha!"

"You want affordable health insurance? Yeah, right, and we'll give you a free pony too! Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha."

"Don't want to work for 50 cents an hour? Go take your old job that's now in China! Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha."

It was bad enough when the GOP Mafia was in charge. At least the outrages and abuses of the public were comprehensible.

But now that we're almost a year into "Change You Can Believe In" it is especially disheartening. Even with the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress there is STILL a feeling that no one is on our side in the ways that count.

And worse yet, we as a nation KEEP PUTTING UP WITH IT. We feel helpless because as individuals we can't change it -- as movements we can't get the politicians to take us seriously -- and in terms of shame....Well there is no more shame.

So we become whipped puppies, accepting the unacceptable because there seems to be no choice.

[asdjrocky]

1. It's small change you can't believe in.

I don't want small change, I want the whole fucking dollar.

[Armstead]

6. At this point I'd settle for 30 cents

[arthritisR_US]

2. the only way out of Learned Helplessness is through action. Don't get

despondent, get rightfully angry and then organize and make the elected afraid of the electorate, like they should be.

[Armstead]

4. That sorta was supposed to be what happened last year....

The nation threw the bums out....Except the new bums are hapless and many are just as corrupt.

[driver8]

10. That is exactly how I feel.

We got Bush and his cronies out, and are still stuck with the same old shit.

Yeah, I'm feeling pretty hopeless right now about our future.

[arthritisR_US]

31. campaign finance reform is a must. Corporations having person hood is

BS, and it is what is paying for most of the elected...I'd rather see you storming the Bastille then losing hope. :grouphug:

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Face it, unless you are selling the government something it thinks it needs

at some inflated price you aren't going to get shit from them, unless you are unfortunate enough to be so bad off that you need their "assistance".

[Armstead]

5. The government is only ;part of the equation...

We can't expect the government to solve all our problems.

But these days, there seems to be NOTHING to hold back the powerful from screwing the rest of us.

[Ozymanithrax]

7. We are a consumer nation adicted to an endless supply of manufactured needs.

My mother has a cast iron pan that was originally owned by my great grandmother in 1882. That skillet is as non stick as anything we use today, because it has been treated and re treated countless times by the women and men in my family. I have a friend who uses cast iron dutch ovens, one of them made in 1848. But in my lifetime alone, I have seen more than a dozen new generations of cookware, each promising to do what skillet does. Multiply that by every item in your home.

We are not whipped puppies. We are addicts to each new thing. The bankers and wallstreet types provide consumerist crack and prosper while we serve our addiction.

[Armstead]

27. They're not doing a very good job of that lately

Now that they have it all, they're not even bothering to introduce new things. Now, they save the good stuff for themselves, and send the rest of us off to the Dollar Store for our plebeian needs.

[Ozymanithrax]

28. That is not new. The rich have always had better stuff available.

What consumerism does is make everyone think they can live like the rich.

[Armstead]

30. What I'm saying is that now the masses don;t even have the luxury of illusion

[Bryn]

8. To me, change means

getting a measly $250 rather than COLA (cost of living adjustment) for SS and SSDI people for two whole years yet billions of dollars of our tax money were freely given to CEOs, Wall Street boys, Banks...and as if it wasn't enough for them, they jolly happy raise high interest rates for credit cards to rake in more money, robbing us LEGALLY AND APPROVED by our own USA Government. It only makes them greedier. The more you give the more they want until they bleed you dry.

[Armstead]

12. You got it -- The more we give, the more they want...and now They smply take it without asking

[depakid]

9. "Tough. Do something about it."

That's pretty much the gauntlet that's been thrown down- and it's up to the administration (by itself in some cases) and the Democratic Senate in others to choose whose side their on.

Time to start going after those who repeatedly screw everyone over... starting in 2010 with Nevada.

[driver8]

11. Until we take big business out of government, we are screwed.

We need campaign finance reform now, more than ever.

Until this happens, nothing will change no matter who is in office.

[Armstead]

13. We tried that one too....But we were spineless enough to let them subvert that too

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. We're a nation that settles for "not as bad" as legitimate excuse for a corrupt government.

[Captain Hilts]

15. Yeah.

Cowboy, up NOW!

[Romulox]

16. Democracy is a sham. Hope that helps. nt

[Armstead]

26. OUR current version of democracy is a sham...But the concept is valid

We just haven't taken it out for a spin in a long while

[anonymous171]

33. No it is not. nt

[Ernesto]

17. We are a nation of sheeple... Our real function is to be sheared.....

By Matt Taibbi.... "After the oil bubble collapsed last fall, there was no new bubble to keep things humming — this time, the money seems to be really gone, like worldwide-depression gone. So the financial safari has moved elsewhere, and the big game in the hunt has become the only remaining pool of dumb, unguarded capital left to feed upon: taxpayer money. Here, in the biggest bailout in history, is where Goldman Sachs really started to flex its muscle."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29127316/the_great_american_bubble_machine

[Armstead]

22. Maybe I should change my OP to Whipped Sheep

It is pretty amazing that we let them suck the common-wealth (i.e. the real economy of real people) dry, and then allowed them to start draining the pool of public finance.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

18. Contrast our situation to that of Great Britain which had an uproar and some resignations

when some members of Parliament were caught padding their expense accounts with things like moat cleanings, etc. Our guys get away with crimes on a scale only imagined heretofore and we take it and take it and take it. When I say "our guys" I mean our corrupt representatives and the corporate crooks they work hand in hand with.

The best advice I could offer someone just starting out is become multi-lingual so that you can find employment elsewhere in the world.

[Armstead]

23. We used to have things like Watergate...

Nowadays, Nixon would have gotten away with it scot free

[xiamiam]

19. SHOCKED us first...as some of us lost our homes and jobs..the meme went out

to blame the victim...i recognized then that immigrants in californias central valley were not the culprits in the subprime fiasco..yet many bought the diversion so that we wouldnt look the way of credit default swaps..while some here even, were unsympathetic to the fact that if whole segments of our community go down, we are going down with them ...so those of us who were blamed for the problem and saw no way out, became dysfunctional and petrified and shocked...incapable of believing that our worlds were crumbling with no help in sight...ptsd has not been addressed...much of the middle class is suffering from ptsd and scared to death...that was part of the plan in my opinion...
there is a bright side however...the collective lesson is a must before we evolve..no way around it...we are a community...those who think they've got their shit together need to think twice...because we're all pawns..and it is all an illusion...the only thing that is real is the love you give and receive..in whatever form

i've been thru all of this...emotional, physical and financial hell....im not on the other side of any of it but im no longer afraid...how many of you realize the emotional dysfunction of what has been done to us..millions of americans?...the sleepless nights, the humiliation, the fear....thats what they did to us...fuck them..

[Armstead]

25. I keep thinking there'll be a last straw for public tolerance of this stuff ...

But there seem to be plenty of more straws in the pile.

[Echo In Light]

20. Oh, there are choices, but enough are still comfy enough in their subjugation, so no dice

... yet

[earth mom]

21. It's more like a bunch of rah rah cheerleaders sipping on kool aid-oblivious to the truth

right in front of their noses

Some of us are trying to get the truth out there but people just refuse to listen because the advertising for the product has been just too damn slick.


p.s. I don't recognize DU as the same place I joined almost 5 years ago.

[xiamiam]

24. it is not the same place and i wish i knew where some of those folks are now..nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. Yes, we have...

[Joe the Liberal]

32. Another thing I've noticed......

is that the standards here aren't very high. People think this is the greatest country on earth just because it isn't a third world nation.

[Armstead]

34. We're working on that......We're headed towards becoming a 3rd World nation ourselves

Not too long in the future, Indian companies will be opening call centers here to take advantage of our cheap labor

[donheld]

35. Or a pot of boiling lobsters

[Armstead]

36. screeeeemmmmmm....(My impression of a pot of boiling lobsters)

[havocmom]

37. Recent experience has convinced me we are a nation in dire need of going to CODA meetings

Too damned many are too willing to be enablers of those who are hurting the bulk of the population. Too many are just co-dependent and quite rigorous in their co-dependency.

It's disgusting for so many to be so self-defeating that the whole society has been made impotent.