Larisa Alexandrovna-Our national nervous breakdown has begun

[kpete]

Larisa Alexandrovna
05.25.2007
Our national nervous breakdown has begun

...............

Uncertainty

Yes, there is a sense that an all pervasive concoction of violent hate, desperation, fear and massive hysteria is nearly ready to explode across the nation. No one knows what to do or how to respond beyond their most base emotions, and hope seems to be a mirage built on commercials of cotton candy safety provided by Big Brother. People are falling apart, lashing out, and doing it no matter what their level of income or political leaning.

Journalists are outraged too and cannot fathom what more they can report to a seemingly irrelevant Congress and a quietly desperate nation.

The nation is tumbling toward pandemonium with each scandal and each lack of response from the other branches of government. With each outrage and abuse of power, more and more quiet disillusionment is turning into chaotic emoting.

Do you feel this as acutely as I do? Perhaps not, but I have the benefit of my own experience, living in a country of jackals who found themselves amidst a seething nation far too long abused, frightened, and angry. When the Soviet Union finally fell, it did not fall peacefully; and worse, it fell into chaos and into the hands of criminals. But it was still the oppressive regime that fell and the good guys - that is, us - who won the Cold War. What happens when the good guys fall, imploding under the weight of mass corruption and a populace teetering near deranged anger? Does it matter that Rosie and Elizabeth had a spat, when the rest of the nation is barely keeping a grip on its sanity, trying to cope in a fabricated reality in which 2 + 2 = whatever we are told?

What is next, then, in this land of mass media produced fuel for a fire that is already raging strongly in our national conscience? I am unsettled and fretting, because I have been here before and the smell of it frightens me... the smell of the desperations of those in power and the smell of "enough" from the powerless.

more at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/our-national-nervous-brea_b_49396.html

[AlinPA]

1. What is next? More TV celebrities. Dancing with the Stars, American Idol,

Right vs Left TV "News".......

[donco6]

7. Bread and Circuses, anyone? n/t

[Hubert Flottz]

2. God is a Concept by which we measure our pain

The Dream is over

It is if we let it happen...

http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/john_lennon/god.html

[TomClash]

3. She's suggesting revolution nt

[NightWatcher]

4. I read the entire thing and she is just expressing angst or "fear and loathing" if you will

"Yes, there is a sense that an all pervasive concoction of violent hate, desperation, fear and massive hysteria is nearly ready to explode across the nation. No one knows what to do or how to respond beyond their most base emotions, and hope seems to be a mirage built on commercials of cotton candy safety provided by Big Brother. People are falling apart, lashing out, and doing it no matter what their level of income or political leaning"

-this is Hunter's "Fear and Loathing" that he first hit on back in the 70's. Panic, fear, hate, desperation, and hysteria.

[enough]

5. I fear Ms. Alexandrovna over-estimates the sense of connection

most Americans feel with politics and their government. Where I live in rural-suburban PA, I never hear the slightest rumbling of any kind of discontent, or even interest in the current catastrophe. I think the vast majority of Americans are simply non-participants. They do not understand what is at stake.

[Golden Raisin]

10. You can find them anywhere.

I live in NYC and there are plenty here as well as the many urbanites who actively participate/comprehend. The non-participants everywhere in this country will wake up with a start when:

1) The Draft returns and THEIR children are turned into bloody cannon fodder.
2) American Idol is cancelled.
3) Blackwater mercenaries start kicking in doors at midnight and carting away American citizens to Halliburton domestic internment camps, never to be seen nor heard of again. Of course it'll be a tad too late by then.

[stillcool]

6. here's the part I don't get

More importantly, this coterie of the privileged provided me with an understanding of just how near collapse the national soul is. Because when even that 1% whom the rest of us - mortals - have generally blamed for the nation's ills is as frightened and worried as we are, then something of a critical mass, a ballooning crisis is near.

The people I met at this event were horror stricken by the direction of where this country is heading and mortified by the abuses of power. There was anger and near panic in their voices when our conversations would wander into politics and the war in Iraq or the attacks of September 11. They are as frightened and worried as the rest of us, angry beyond words, and finding themselves embarrassed by the vehemence of their anger.

...these people do have it in their power to change things. Those that sit on the boards of the major multi-national corporations can certainly sway the direction of current events. It is they, and their kind..not the politicians that control the bully pulpit.

[Annces]

8. I am not sure a comparison with Russia works

We are letting corporations take over here, whereas Russia was calling quits on the communist model. I wonder just what the core values of many democrats who are doing well financially actually are. It seems possible that our own democrats gave up on social values the same way Russia gave up on communist values.

[rucky]

9. Combine that with a complacent populace,

and you've got yourself a theory.

[Mojorabbit]

11. I agree with her

Most people I meet have a vague feeling of unease. I can't begin to count the number of people who have a "feeling" that something bad is going to happen but they can't put their finger on it. That things aren't "right". It is an undertone and it is there.

If the Dem leadership were smart they would be out there framing it as what it is. That * policies are what is putting us in a very bad position. People want leadership, we need someone who can ispire us to be the country we grew up thinking we were. We have some big problems coming up with peak oil, climate change up at the top of my list and we need these problems to be addressed yesterday.

[Jack Rabbit]

12. The phrase comes from the Sixties

I believe it was coined by Martin Luther King, but I could be wrong. If not, then it was used by somebody talking about the Vietnam War and the political assassinations of Dr. King and Senator Kennedy.

I can see us going through something like that again. It is an agonizing national experience.