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Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being screwed do not "set them free" but instead further demoralize them? Has such a demoralization happened in the United States?...

When people become broken, they cannot act on truths of injustice. Furthermore, when people have become broken, more truths about how they have been victimized can lead to shame about how they have allowed it. And shame, like fear, is one more way we become even more psychologically broken.

U.S. citizens do not actively protest obvious injustices for the same reasons that people cannot leave their abusive spouses: They feel helpless to effect change. The more we don't act, the weaker we get. And ultimately to deal with the painful humiliation over inaction in the face of an oppressor, we move to shut-down mode and use escape strategies such as depression, substance abuse, and other diversions, which further keep us from acting. This is the vicious cycle of all abuse syndromes.
Perhaps the "political genius" of the Bush-Cheney regime was in their full realization that Americans were so broken that the regime could get away with damn near anything. And the more people did nothing about the boot slamming on their faces, the weaker people became....

The U.S. government-corporate partnership has used its share of guns and terror to break Native Americans, labor union organizers, and other dissidents and activists. But today, most U.S. citizens are broken by financial fears. There is potential legal debt if we speak out against a powerful authority, and all kinds of other debt if we do not comply on the job. Young people are broken by college-loan debts and fear of having no health insurance.

The U.S. population is increasingly broken by the social isolation created by corporate-governmental policies. A 2006 American Sociological Review study ("Social Isolation in America: Changes in Core Discussion Networks over Two Decades") reported that, in 2004, 25 percent of Americans did not have a single confidant. (In 1985, 10 percent of Americans reported not having a single confidant.)...

We are also broken by a corporate-government partnership that has rendered most of us out of control when it comes to the basic necessities of life, including our food supply. And we, like many other people in the world, are broken by socializing institutions that alienate us from our basic humanitA long list of school critics from Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, John Holt, Paul Goodman, Jonathan Kozol, Alfie Kohn, Ivan Illich, and John Taylor Gatto have pointed out that a school is nothing less than a miniature society: what young people experience in schools is the chief means of creating our future society. Schools are routinely places where kids -- through fear -- learn to comply to authorities for whom they often have no respect, and to regurgitate material they often find meaningless. These are great ways of breaking someone.

Today, U.S. colleges and universities have increasingly become places where young people are merely acquiring degree credentials -- badges of compliance for corporate employers -- in exchange for learning to accept bureaucratic domination and enslaving debt.

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We are also broken by a corporate-government partnership that has rendered most of us out of control when it comes to the basic necessities of life, including our food supply. And we, like many other people in the world, are broken by socializing institutions that alienate us from our basic humanity long list of school critics from Henry David Thoreau to John Dewey, John Holt, Paul Goodman, Jonathan Kozol, Alfie Kohn, Ivan Illich, and John Taylor Gatto have pointed out that a school is nothing less than a miniature society: what young people experience in schools is the chief means of creating our future society. Schools are routinely places where kids -- through fear -- learn to comply to authorities for whom they often have no respect, and to regurgitate material they often find meaningless. These are great ways of breaking someone.

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Noone ever listens to me...

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Are Americans a Broken People?

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Does the idea of Americans as a Broken People make you feel better, or more justified?

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I can't be helped in calling a spade a spade.

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A client once told me about his experiences with bottoms; how he continually ended up in jail, continually lost stuff, i.e.; cars, apartments, friends, family, etc.. {You can substitute Treasury, manufacturing capability, respect} I asked him why he kept hitting these bottoms and he replied, "Dr. XXX, when you have no self-esteem to begin with, there are no limits to your bottoms." It was a brilliant, classic statement coming from a twenty-two year old addict. Essentially, the worse one feels about himself, the lower he will allow the disease to take him before choosing to get into recovery. Generally, people with healthier mental attitudes towards themselves get into recovery much more quickly than those who do not. When you don't feel good about yourself, and you're drinking and drugging, no matter what bottom you hit, you can always find a shovel and keep digging.

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Originally posted by Wulfenstar:
"Cause that's what it's all about, innit ?

Hope."

Exactly.

Noone ever listens to me...

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Originally posted by Wulfenstar:
Except, we are all allowed our opinions. I can say you are a bitch and a coward for refusing to defend the weak. Or for saying that we are not allowed to speak our minds, or to protect ourselves. Its my opinion, but still?

I am allowed it.

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Now, after eight or is it nine? years of Bush...

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Originally posted by Geezer:
Are Americans a Broken People?

Some are.

Some aren't.

Some would be broken no matter how well the country works.

Some will never be broken no matter how badly the country works.

Does the idea of Americans as a Broken People make you feel better, or more justified?

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Dear Kettle,

You're black!

Signed,

The Pot

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

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Originally posted by Geezer:
Are Americans a Broken People?

Some are.

Some aren't.

Some would be broken no matter how well the country works.

Some will never be broken no matter how badly the country works.

Does the idea of Americans as a Broken People make you feel better, or more justified?

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Dear Kettle,

You're black!

Signed,

The Pot

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Why would you say THAT?

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Originally posted by Geezer:

Because it seems to be the theme in pretty much all your posts. You seem, to me, to just revel in any problems that America might have. You also seem to ignore or downplay the gains in racial equality, sexual equality and acceptance of gender differences that have occurred over the last 50 or so years and continue to occur. You seek out the bad news and leave out any good. You mock and insult anyone who suggests that there may be any hope at all. You complain about everything but offer solutions for nothing.

Perhaps the world hasn't treated you as you think you deserve, and you have to have something to blame.

Just for fun, this goes for Rue and Mike too.

I'll go put on my firesuit now.

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Originally posted by Geezer:
You seem, to me, to just revel in any problems that America might have.

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Originally posted by piratenews:

Doin good is easy. Surviving govt genocide programs is hard.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
And your theme, Geez?

That no matter what America does, we're right, everyone else is wrong, end of story. You rejoice in every problem that America might create for others, and insist that we're just invading them to "show them the light of truth". You utterly ignore any racial inequality or gender inequality, saying it simply doesn't exist. You ignore any bad news and try to paint it as good. You're the kind of person who looks back fondly at slavery, and says, "Y'know, those people were lucky they had a roof over their heads! They should be THANKING us - dammit, they should be paying US back rent!" You mock and insult anyone who suggests that there may be any problem at all, and you complain about everything those "nasty libruls" say, while (in typical Republican fashion) offering nothing whatsoever by way of any kind of solution.

And when you're called on your constant hypocrisy, you whine and pewl about how you're not being treated fairly.

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Originally posted by chrisisall:
RECOGNIZING is different than REVELING.
We bitch about Bush's (Cheney's really) actions & you call foul. We bitch about Obama's inactions & you call foul.

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Originally posted by Geezer:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
And your theme, Geez?

That no matter what America does, we're right, everyone else is wrong, end of story. You rejoice in every problem that America might create for others, and insist that we're just invading them to "show them the light of truth". You utterly ignore any racial inequality or gender inequality, saying it simply doesn't exist. You ignore any bad news and try to paint it as good. You're the kind of person who looks back fondly at slavery, and says, "Y'know, those people were lucky they had a roof over their heads! They should be THANKING us - dammit, they should be paying US back rent!" You mock and insult anyone who suggests that there may be any problem at all, and you complain about everything those "nasty libruls" say, while (in typical Republican fashion) offering nothing whatsoever by way of any kind of solution.

And when you're called on your constant hypocrisy, you whine and pewl about how you're not being treated fairly.

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Mike's Standard Response #3.

"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Originally posted by Bytemite:
PN is hard right? Granted, the religiousness and the anti-homosexuality, but politically I thought he was kind of an equal opportunity attacker. He appears to hate Ah-nold, Larry Craig, and any corrupt Republicans caught in affairs or sexting teens as much as he hates anyone on the left.

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Wulf... I guess he's hard right in that he's libertarian and a bit of a nationalist, though he's not classic hard right.

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To be hard right in America, I thought you had to support everything the Republican party does and all their platforms/messages. DT told me you had a few of those in the past, but that they mostly went away after Obama was elected.

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Guess you would all know better than I would if Geezer is hard right, but I don't think not responding to PN or Wulf is necessarily agreement with them.

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