Why America Is Depressed, and What To Do About It
by: Dave Belden on January 30th, 2010 | 20 Comments »
Welcome to AlterNet readers! We love the new AlterNet site [where Harriet Fraad's Tikkun article was cross-posted] and we hope you will love this blog, which aims to refresh the souls of weary leftists. We challenge the religiophobic parts of the Left to engage in better strategies that connect with the American people, who find the crises of modernity to be spiritual as well as economic (but often it is only the Religious Right that speaks to the spiritual crisis). Atheists are as welcome here as believers: for us spirituality is more about how we act than what theological beliefs we hold. We have ideas for Obama, of course, but he’s not listening to us. Tikkun Olam means to heal and repair the world. Let us know in the comments whether you think our posts and our art gallery are helping to do that.
Our lead article in the current print issue of Tikkun is “American Depressions” by psychotherapist Harriet Fraad. The Table of Contents of the whole issue is here — check out Chris Hedges on Celebrity Culture and the Obama Brand and other great pieces, most of which you still have to buy the print magazine to read: try your local bookstore or get one here. You can also subscribe to get the most visionary magazine on the American Left!
Harriet Fraad, on the public access TV show The Struggle (http://thestruggle.org/MediaP.htm)
Harriet Fraad says she wrote “American Depressions”
out of a great sadness that Americans have been unable to defend their lives and stop the bleeding of their wounded salaries, their jobs, their homes and their relationships. I read about the militant and successful demonstrations and other tactics that defended Europeans and wondered, what happened to us?
The Left is well known for providing a gloomy read on America — after all, somebody has to tell the truth. But it used to be that the Left was also the place to go for vision about this world, the dream of socialism. That dream has taken some knocks, just as the mainstream American dream has taken some knocks. What’s to keep a person’s spirits up?
Well, first, it helps to have good analysis of what’s gone wrong. And then some pointers as to ways forward. Fraad’s article does both. As to what went wrong, Fraad writes in her article:
… What happened is a result of at least five major, interrelated forces. One is a transformation of American morality, and with it the loss of belief that the social and political realms could be shaped by morality, ethics, and secular spirituality. Another is an economic depression. A third is a transformation of the family, which has been the foundation of American emotional life. A fourth is the decimation of Americans’ social participation in all areas, from bridge clubs and PTAs to political parties. A fifth is the tranquilizing and numbing of the American population with psychotropic medications.
The bulk of the article explains those five points. Then she goes to what is to be done about it, and writes:
We can look to the four areas that have grown in the current social drought. They are, in order of their growth, self-help groups, internet groups, evangelical church groups, and GLBT groups.
Today in an email Fraad said:
Since I wrote the article, on January 26 in fact, I read an exciting piece of news. No one made a big commotion about this exciting victory. Tea Party actions are well publicized. This seems like another symptom of the right-wing money accumulated at the top and used to influence media. The good news is that the people of Oregon voted against the tide. They refused to raise money by cutting teachers, homeless shelters, etc. Instead, they decided to tax incomes over $250,000 a year and add an even higher tax on incomes over $500,000 a year. They also raised a tax on corporations. They fought a wealthy lobby and won with a coalition of PTA members, union members, and progressive Democrats. Is this a sign of change yet unheralded? I hope so.
If you didn’t catch the Oregon story, try reading about it on AlterNet.
Could just be like the right and weed out the meaning and pick what to say!!! – But then again – it will sooner or later will show through – or tell the truth – Were trapped in a system that – has placed a value on our souls – what is or credit score? or plastic – what is the wad of money worth we hold in our pockets? The god of this world speaks – your worth this much today – Going to be tricky – I must say the least – Right now people are in the plz work mode – But this type of system has never worked for long – God destroyed it instantly – when it poked it’s head out with moses – J fought against it – France King -VS- the freemasions – fought against it – Has caused genocides across the world – The Constitution tried to protect against it – Really has to be a bad feeling – what are you worth – by what they value you at – But don’t feel bad – me and my people been valued at they can make a buck by experimenting on us. Native’s. But I feel bad for you people – you followed off with a god – that never had your interest at heart – atleast we keep our souls.
Dave, thank you for the alert! I do not know if depression is the right word. I believe that caring Americans face three emotions – anxiety, exhaustion, and stress. The GOP is relentless in their hatred, corruption, and lies. They do not govern but they hold meetings to decide what messages will be sent daily. They are not even human beings. They function more like machines.
Thanks to Dave, and other respondents. I have had to stop watching more than a minimum of “news and analysis” Found myself stooping my channel hopping to look at and laugh at re-runs of “America’s Funniest Videos” I did not watch that show when it was live. The idiocy–sans violence–brought a few belly laughs and I felt some release-relief.
Trying to find something to watch in the evening, after my eyes are tired from writing and reading words all day, the screen is filled with violence and sexual stupidities. I looked through movie listings last weekend. Nothing of “redeeming value.” I wouldn’t go to a Mel Gibson movie if offered a free ticket, popcorn, candy and pop.
It’s cold–even in Florida– for outdoor action.
While I do not agree with the premise that Obama is not listening articulated in the introduction to AlterNet, I do agree that the left is in a malaise and both Fraad and the previous comment by Gerald Socha shed light on what underlies it. Socha mentions “exhaustion” and attributes it to the relentless Republican barrage. I agree but think that there are more powerful reasons.
Because our world has become so dispersed and complex and because our institutions are failing us, the demands on individuals in our society have become so great that there is neither time nor energy left to do things beyond the personally immediate day to day. Most care-takers of children are also working outside of the home. In order to maintain our jobs, many of us stay at work longer and bring work home with us and all with little or no additional compensation. And in most two parent households, our spouses are doing the same thing.The public schools that our children attend are severely under-resourced so we volunteer. Our world is unsafe so we feel a need to constantly chaperone and monitor our children. For many of us, family and neighbors are not on hand to provide support or relief.
In addition, weighing and making sense of the constant bombardment of information with which we are subjected can also be exhausting. I can barely get to the grocery store (let alone a Farmer’s Market) and find the time and energy to cook a decent meal. I try to choose foods and products thoughtfully. I analyze my options cognizant of the impact that my choices will have on my own family’s health,on the welfare of animals, the exploitation of migrant farmers and foreign farmers, and the degradation of our environment. It is an effort to make the least onerous choices. Nothing is simple.
We feel the awesome responsibility that comes with knowledge but feel personally limited to adequately respond. For many Jewish lefties, even Shabbat is a scramble. When do we get to rest and replenish? Where is the time and energy that we need to take on larger systemic issues? For many of us, despite our relative prosperity, we are just trying to get through the day.
Actually, Gwendoline, “America’s Funniest Videos” is quite a violent program. A lot of the humor comes from people getting hurt. The channels that have given me hope over the past nine years are on both DISH satellite and the internet — Free Speech TV (especially “Democracy Now” with Amy Goodman), FreeSpeech.org; and LINKtv.org.
As a life-long progressive leftie, this question has gnawed at me: Where’s the American rage and why can’t it be channeled into huge street protests? Frankly, I no longer know what actions to take to get my country back. Congress is loaded with bought-and-paid-for whores… the People’s Business won’t happen there. Until Massachusetts (God bless those voters), no one was listening. We know our important elections are fixed (Diebold, etc.) and are disgusted that Pelosi has done nothing to get us all on paper-trail ballots… yet, she promised this in 2006. Until elections are truly free & clear, we don’t have a democracy. Got that? We no longer have a democratic republic.
It’s obvious to many of us that Obama is a puppet. He’s got handlers just as Bush did. There’s a Shadow Agenda and it’s starting to click into place. With HAARP weapons & other nefarious technologies, we don’t stand a chance… not in my lifetime. I haven’t given up, but I do see the writing on the wall.
I totally agree with this author. We are drugged, asleep at the wheel. It’s the SOMA pill of Brave, New World. Young people have their MP3s, cell phones, Blackberries, Twitter & Facebook. They’ll notice with shock when we’re off the grid one day. We’ve been dumbed down by the media. People are too tired when they get home from work… too tired to do any critical thinking. The inexorable “takeover” of our freedoms has been covert, insidious, and gradual. Nothing alarming there. People can’t think. Therefore, they can’t connect the dots.
Soon we will be the North American Union with Canada & Mexico. Where does everyone think this union is heading? One World Government. The New World Order. Europeans countries lost countless freedoms when they joined the European Union. Initially, it was just a trade agreement. When Corporations control the government, when corporate lobbyists write our legislation, then we’ve arrived at the definition of Fascism. While it still appears benevolent, we’re already living in a dictatorship. When people wake up, martial law will become a reality. It will be too late. I’m enraged at the people who have not paid attention.
Sorry for the doom & gloom, but I’ve been reading voraciously on these subjects for several years now, and have spit blood trying to get people to listen. I’m worn out. Obama has been one of my biggest disappointments to date. I continue to be amazed at the great acting abilities and theatrics of our public leaders.
Reader from AlterNet here, am excited to find your blog, Mr. Belden, and this magazine. As an atheist on the Left, I am always interested in intelligent, progressive discussion on beliefs and religion in general. I look forward to participating in the commenting at this blog, and learning more about Tikkun.
Best,
Winston Mahler
Charleston, S.C.
“As an atheist on the Left, I am always interested in intelligent, progressive discussion on beliefs and religion in general.”
Hi Winston,
I am also a Charleston resident. Since you are interested in “intelligent, progressive discussion on beliefs and religion in general” you might want to check out Circular Church on Meeting Street. I think it’s the closest thing to a “Tikkun-like” place in town. All are welcome to discuss and question in an open and accepting manner. It is a bright, progressive beacon in our lovely, but conservative city.
Cheers!
So impressed was I by the accuracy of Ms. Fraad’s analysis, I followed it here from Information Clearing House, curious about her and about Tikkun as well.
Nevertheless while Ms. Fraad accurately summarizes the psychodynamics of our disempowerment, she fails to recognize the historically unique combination of circumstances that define our subjugation as genuinely eternal — that is, until the forces of Nature impose the pseudo-liberation of rendering the entire human species extinct.
As Ms. Fraad implies, class struggle is indeed the core truth of human history — at least of human history under patriarchy (i.e., since the sack of Knossos). But class struggle is underlain today by a unique imperative: not just fulfillment of the normal Ruling Class greed and sadism, but the mandate to impose the genuinely unprecedented tyranny essential to survive the forthcoming triple apocalypse — petroleum bankruptcy, terminal climate change, the resultant savagery of human chaos — and (if indeed any humans survive) to emerge from these horrors with its power and wealth relatively intact.
That is the Ruling Class intent I believe fuels every socioeconomic struggle on the planet today.
As to what this new nightmare world might look like, picture the darkest of Dark Ages — a manorial economy, a feudal military system, all of us in the Working Class reduced to a serfdom of unimaginable filth and degradation — and every bit of it enforced with the modern technologies of mass murder, surveillance and most of all torture.
Not the world of Star Trek but the world as Auschwitz — and no fearless Red Cavalry to liberate us ever again.
Alas, this is not dystopian fiction. It is a portrait based solidly on reason: a combination of Gaia Hypothesis science and the undeniable patterns of history. The latter prove the supremacy granted the Ruling Class by its mastery of the technologies of oppression is irreversible simply because the cost of these technologies — not to mention the knowledge required for their use — have placed them forever beyond appropriation by the Working Class.
Just as the French Revolution of 1789 would have failed without weapons seized from government arsenals, just as the Russian Revolutions of 1917 would have identically failed, so is any future attempt at revolution doomed by the fact the Ruling Class ownership and mastery of technology has literately given it the terrible omnipotence of the malevolent Abrahamic god that was always its ultimate role model.
Meanwhile even if the Ruling Class did not have absolute and permanent technological superiority, its methodical imposition of the Moron Nation ethos — the state of abject powerlessness Ms. Fraad so thoroughly documents in “Americans Passive” — has created an everlasting barrier to the non-technological prerequisites for revolution.
History proves that all successful revolutions — and there are truly no exceptions — require (1)-the solidarity of binding ideology; (2)-a disciplined cadre of leaders; (3)-a large population segment that is militarily trained; (4)-the support of a powerful foreign ally. Any attempt at revolution lacking even one of these requirements is doomed.
Taking the prerequisites by number:
(1)-Ms. Fraad correctly recognizes the intellectual paralysis of the U.S. citizenry, but — chiefly because New York City remains “Another Country” (just as James Baldwin so aptly labeled it) — I doubt she realizes that the combination of official anti-intellectuality (the legacy of not only the purges of the 1940s and 1950s but of virtually every public-school classroom and playground since) reinforced by methodically induced public imbecility (whether by teachers or propagandists) has re-created in the beyond-the-Hudson U.S. population the same permanently ineducable, viciously reactionary mindset that characterized the anti-Soviet Mujiki. Such a population can never produce a binding humanitarian ideology. Nor has it the capability of adopting such an ideology from elsewhere. This is why Teabaggers and their future-fuhrer Palin thrive — why U.S. protofascism drifts ever closer to an indigenous form of true Nazism — even as the Left is rejected and jeered: the population has been so thoroughly envenomed by the notion that stupidity means superiority, no antidote is possible.
Which is also, by the way, why U.S. socialism has been rendered forever impossible: a major aspect of the Moron Nation cult of stupidity is Working Class embrace of the morally imbecilic greed that formerly characterized only the Ruling Class.
(2)-The psychodynamics of Moron Nation permanently obstruct the emergence of effective grassroots leadership for the same reason they prohibit the emergence of ideology or even analysis. An excellent case-study of this prohibitive process is the feminist essay “Trashing,” linked here: http://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/trashing.htm
(3)-The revolutionary value of military training is more in its exposure to disciplined teamwork than its familiarization with technology. Given the proto-revolutionary context of the late 1960s and early 1970s (particularly within minority communities), this is undoubtedly the real reason for abolition of the military draft. The U.S. ruling class — unlike its Tsarist Russian counterpart — was Machiavellian enough to recognize the draft was training its enemies. This also explains why the present-day U.S. government has turned to mercenaries rather than conscripts to flesh out its imperial armies.
(4)-No revolution succeeds without the support of a foreign super-power. Just as pre-Revolutionary France enabled the American Revolution (which now in an ironically obscene perversion of fulfillment is re-creating the socioeconomic and political conditions of pre-Revolutionary France), so did the Kaiser’s Germany enable the Soviet Revolution. Later — and despite its glaring hypocrisies — the Soviet Union would enable FDR’s now-vanquished revolutionary ameliorations and China’s now-seemingly self-betrayed revolution. The USSR would also — by its threatened alternative of violent revolution — empower both Gandhi’s nonviolence in India and King’s nonviolence in the U.S. Finally we should never forget it was the threat of Soviet-supported revolution elsewhere that, though only for about 30 years (1932-1963), forced capitalism to disguise the infinite viciousness that is its defining core value.
But with the USSR gone forever, there is no longer any force on this planet capable of caging the tyrannosaur of capitalism — nor will there ever be again.
Nevertheless as Sartre and Camus learned during the French Resistance — and as drunkards learn their first hours in Alcoholics Anonymous — the forthright acknowledgement of absolute powerlessness is the only viable first step toward recovery.
i was told years ago, it’s not what the make, but what you save that counts. i related this only to money. in the last few tears, i apply it to how i live, inc. buying used clothes, turning off lights, not running water wastefully, reading used books, recycle reuse etc. i get a deeper sense of satisfaction from the way i live, possibly more meaning from my “god-less” existence.every dollar one spends, is a vote for the change one whishes to see. take responsibility for your own life, IMAGINE that if there is a problem in your life, it is about you, you alone are responsible for your feelings
I like and identify with many of your frugal suggestions.
take responsibility for your own life, IMAGINE that if there is a problem in your life, it is about you, you alone are responsible for your feelings
IMO, this is just bright-siding denial. No person lives as an isolated island, unimpacted by life around them. Lower class people are told this all the time, usually as a way to shut us up or not have to hear about the consequences we bear of the choices they’ve made. It’s long past time for those higher up, and those that continue to drink the bright-sider kool aid to hear the very real obstacles of other’s creation lower class people face that cause depression, frustration and anxiety, all of which are indeed quite real and cannot be solved by simply imagining them away.
The view from Bend Oregon is different from the progressive view. Prop 66 and 67 were passed because of only two citified counties substantially divorced from the reality of the rest of Oregon. Bend, for example, has high unemployment because its major employer industry, forestry products, is in decline. They are scrambling to put together some kind of new economy.
But what company is going to start up in Bend when these progressives have vowed to loot them? How many companies already there are going to survive both a bad economy and the progressives’ looting?
You hear cheers from Oregon progressives. I hear cries of despair from the rest of Oregon.
That’s an interesting POV from outside the Portland core.
But what company is going to start up in Bend when these progressives have vowed to loot them? How many companies already there are going to survive both a bad economy and the progressives’ looting?
I’ve lived in a more than a few places where economic hellholes were forced to create smaller and new economies after big steel/big coal or a corporate HQ pulled up stakes and left town. The increase in the corporate tax could hardly be considered “looting” except in the bizarrely-addled dis-perceptions and strange parasitic expectations of the owing class. Eventually those even amongst the owning class who are truly local will figure that distortion out and discard it, starting businesses anyway. That’s how it’s been done all over various hellholes in PA, NY and New England. The places I’m talking about didn’t turn into Beverly Hills by any stretch but at least people can get by now whereas before, there was nothing.
Nothing’s going to happen now to be sure, but eventually a body’s gotta eat and food’s gotta get grown to be eaten. When necessity hits, people adapt or die/move.
I mean, come on, $250K in Oregon is big bucks. A 34% tax rate on their income is still nothing for someone at that level. So they might have to buy VW instead of Mercedes. Boo hoo, ya’ know?
And the hits just keep coming. Mayor Daley of Chicago is planning an outreach to Oregon companies to have them leave their high tax environment for Chicago.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704722304575037640975408612.html
I read Harriet’s piece with deep interest. There’s so much intriguing and important content in it that I could write essays for a week taking each area of focus in more depth. But the one thing that really stood out for me was the framing of women as the emotional core, the gender responsible for home. I’ve had plenty of feminist anthro and gender studies courses both in the middle 1980’s and in the ‘aughts of the 21st century, so I’m very familiar with the stats and studies that support that view, and in those classes in the ‘aughts how other feminist studies have found very different conclusions as men’s roles shift as well. The deep investment by Harriet on women in the piece surprised me more than it should, I guess. She’s one of the core thinkers in feminism after all.
The surprise maybe comes from my own apparently atypical experience as a male who has laterally shifted (invaded according to some) into the traditionally female experience. For me as a male and a SAHD turned WAHD, the home is where I’ve focused my energy for the past twelve years. I have a different class position than most middling class folks too, we’re much lower on the rungs below them though we share the advanced education of those much “higher.” So I already know to expect my personal engagement in the things raised by Harriet’s piece is going to be out of alignment with the experience of most other readers of her piece.
Looking around my neighborhood and talking about some of her analysis and observations in the piece with coworkers (working class and below types in my world, other educators and professionals in my mate’s) the responses have been varied, largely along class lines, perhaps predictably too. The one thing that has stood out however is the emphasis on women as the emotional core and responsible party for home. Even women we’ve talked to found that jarring if not strange. The typical comment from women we’ve talked to who read the piece as well was along the lines of, ‘well maybe that’s how it used to be but it sure isn’t now,’ and ‘what kind of a goal is she trying to suggest, that we go back to that?!’
The other comment that came up, and also came up for me personally was the notion of passivity and apathy in Americans. Nearly all my working class neighbors and coworkers flat out rejected that observation or conclusion on the whole. My neighbor from El Salvador pointed out that she doesn’t see Americans as passive at all, apathy in some sectors of society, maybe. She sees, as did several other people born locally, that Americans are trapped and they know it. “Just because we live in a cage doesn’t mean we’re passive about it. You can only shake the bars so many times before it just wears you out.” I think she’s on to something there. Depression was something my mate’s coworkers brought up a lot. My coworkers and our neighbors agreed there was depression after thinking about it for a minute or two.. mostly amongst the working and working poor class, we’re exhausted and running on auto-pilot while running on pure fumes and it doesn’t look like it’ll change any time soon.
Thanks, Dave for putting this up with some excerpts.
Americans are depressed for all the reasons mentioned by the other writers. I am most depressed by the realization that there is really no fix for the multitudinous problems (many of them connected) that our country faces. How do you fix our foreign policy of meddling and wreaking havoc wherever we don’t obtain obedience? Korea, The Tamils, the Vietnamese, Laos, Cambodia. Iraq, Iran, Chile, Guatamala, Colombia, Haiti, Lebanon, Yemen, the list goes on. How do we deal with our Special Forces and private contractor armies of mercenaries, except by having endless wars? And endless wars will destroy us financially and morally, as they have already mostly done. We are Rome. Disintegrating.
One symptom of this disintegration is our inability to get things done. We are so angry and so ignorant as a population that we grasp at anything that will relieve our frustration. Those who manipulate the masses, our propagandists, use that weakness for their own ends. Try to cheer me up, because I am in despair.
Americans are depressed because they realize that our government has been hijacked (by ideologues, by a neoconservative cabal, by a shadow elite…..call it what you will). From directing us into Middle East wars, to running up astounding deficits, to a trade policy that has resulted in loss of sovereignty and independence, to a Supreme Court that strengthens the hand of multinational corporations, our own government has been hijacked, and rather quickly, before our very eyes. We are screaming for redress but no one hears or cares. Our feeling of powerlessness in the midst of these enormous assaults, has had a profoundly depressing effect on many of us.
How about running REAL progressive candidates against the fake progressives in the Democratic Party? They could run as “Independent” at first. Have you heard Obama’s defense budget yet? Who are we fighting a war with? A band of a few thousand cave-dwelling extremists with no air force, no navy, no missiles, no helicopters, no tanks, no heavy artillery. Why are we still in Iraq? Where are the public works programs? Where are the jobs? Where’s the change?
The Republicans have to deal with the Libertarian and the Reform parties. We owe it to the American public to encourage a more vibrant political life by giving them a real progressive option. As Ralph Nader pointed out, it isn’t about stealing voters from the Democrats, it’s about getting people to vote who have given up on the two major parties.
Although there is certainly a lot of very painful but really appropriate belt tightening and readjustment going on, it is necessary to bring us back into balance with what is really sustainable on Planet Earth. However, there is also great generosity and huge community available to pretty much anybody who wishes to participate. When you figure out that you are creating your reality with your thoughts, you may decide to start looking at the bright side of the transformation of consciousness that humanity is now undergoing. It’s awesome! Kick the boohoo addiction. Breathe in the miracle of life. Get ON with it!
Couldn’t be stated better than the remark by Carol Hiltner. We have to remember that we have no lease on crystal balls, and should not indulge in the hubris of making dire predictions of where this all ends. Basically, allowing ourselves to be discouraged is a kind of wallowing that implies that it’s time that “something” happened, which is clearly outside our sphere of influence . . that little joke about “being above our paygrade”. Personally, I’m very excited about the blend of feminism and collectivism that Harriet Fraad represents. We are obliged to recognize progress in the human condition, in spite of what seems like a glacial time scale. Let us help each other to think good, creative thoughts and be brave and patient.