American Psychosis. What happens to a society that cannot distinguish

[cliffordu]

between reality and illusion??

By Chris Hedges...

It is the cult of self that is killing the United States.

This cult has within it the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation; a penchant for lying, deception and manipulation; and the incapacity for remorse or guilt.

More here:

https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/90/hedges-american-psychosis.html

[Deep13]

1. Yup. nt

[immune]

16. I haven't been here very long, but so far I'd have to say

this is the best thread ever.

Thanks for posting.

[immune]

17. Well okay

so I thanked the wrong poster. Its been that kind of day.

[cliffordu]

27. Kewell...I do stuff like that on short days.....

[immune]

42. I was hoping you'd catch my goof and know

how much I appreciated this thread.

Regarding our penchant for lying, deception and manipulation; and the incapacity for remorse or guilt.

Worse than deception is self-deception.

A friend told me today that she believes in the theory that working people are the real heroes of the country. She works in the medical insurance industry, which she knows first hand is irreparably corrupt, so I asked her how doing the same things day after day, even knowing that those things play directly into the hands of the corporations that are tearing this country apart brick by brick, could that daily grind be construed as heroic. She had no answer, other than to say she basically does it for the paycheck. So I guess we can add shortsightedness to the above list.

[LaurenG]

2. This hits home

And yet, even in the face of catastrophe, mass culture continues to assure us that if we close our eyes, if we visualize what we want, if we have faith in ourselves, if we tell God that we believe in miracles, if we tap into our inner strength, if we grasp that we are truly exceptional, if we focus on happiness, our lives will be harmonious and complete. This cultural retreat into illusion, whether peddled by positive psychologists, by Hollywood or by Christian preachers, is magical thinking. It turns worthless mortgages and debt into wealth. It turns the destruction of our manufacturing base into an opportunity for growth. It turns alienation and anxiety into a cheerful conformity. It turns a nation that wages illegal wars and administers offshore penal colonies where it openly practices torture into the greatest democracy on earth. And it keeps us from fighting back.

Resistance movements will have to look now at the long night of slavery, the decades of oppression in the Soviet Union and the curse of fascism for models. The goal will no longer be the possibility of reforming the system but of protecting truth, civility and culture from mass contamination. It will require the kind of schizophrenic lifestyle that characterizes all totalitarian societies. Our private and public demeanors will often have to stand in stark contrast. Acts of defiance will often be subtle and nuanced. They will be carried out not for short term gain but the assertion of our integrity. Rebellion will have an ultimate if not easily definable purpose. The more we retreat from the culture at large the more room we will have to carve out lives of meaning, the more we will be able to wall off the flood of illusions disseminated by mass culture and the more we will retain sanity in an insane world. The goal will become the ability to endure.

[OneGrassRoot]

4. Wow, that is intense and spot on....

I think I'll go with "positive thinking combined with positive action" as my personal goal.

:hi:

[LaurenG]

7. You are a smart cookie,

you got this. :hi: :D

[BlancheSplanchnik]

37. indeed!

:thumbsup:

:D OGR :hi:

[bobbolink]

25. Yes, Barbara Ehrenreich said it very well in BRIGHT-SIDED: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive

Thinking Has Undermined America"

But many, if not most, people will hang on to the illusion that "positive thinking" actually changes reality.

:(

[L0oniX]

40. ...and then your home gets invaded by thugs who murder you and your family. End of story.

[LaurenG]

44. That would be

The End.

[handmade34]

3. k&r good read

"...The decline of American empire began ...when we shifted ...to an “empire of consumption.” ...We substituted the illusion of growth and prosperity for real growth and prosperity. The bill is now due. America’s most dangerous enemies are not Islamic radicals but those who sold us the perverted ideology of free-market capitalism and globalization..."

[Donnachaidh]

5. Nails it totally.

"This cult has within it the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity and self-importance; a need for constant stimulation; a penchant for lying, deception and manipulation; and the incapacity for remorse or guilt."

:scared: :scared: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[mmonk]

6. Great read.

[laughingliberal]

8. K & R nt

[cliffordu]

9. bump.

[grantcart]

10. In a similar vein 41% believe that the second coming is imminent.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=214x251784

[cliffordu]

11. They moved your shit, man. Fucked it up and moved it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. tl;dr

[AnArmyVeteran]

13. Thank you for that article! BRILLIANT!

I especially loved this:

"America’s most dangerous enemies are not Islamic radicals but those who sold us the perverted ideology of free-market capitalism and globalization. They have dynamited the very foundations of our society."


https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/90/hedges-american-p.

[Ichingcarpenter]

14. The Myth of American Individualism

Can be seen on Fox News

Nice article I will pass it on

[KonaKane]

15. Frighteningly true.

It reminds me of the first article I read on the conservative pathology. While the title was incendiary, you just had to admit they made a great, clear case!

[depakid]

18. Yep- thanks to the deregulated media, Americans can no longer distinguish objective fact

from abject falsehood.

How a nation with a citizenry like this meets the challenges and solves the problems of the 21st Century is beyond me.

[AnArmyVeteran]

20. Sad, but true...

"How a nation with a citizenry like this meets the challenges and solves the problems of the 21st Century is beyond me."

It's obvious we're NOT meeting the challenges of the 21st century. We need a major shakeup. And President Obama needs to boldly lead our country in a different direction because if he doesn't do it, and do it now, I see absolutely no future for this country.

[JuniperLea]

19. The Idiocracy is here...

And they are scary as hell.

Great read! Thanks for posting... I'll have nightmares tonight! This is the kind of thing that makes me crazy!

[cliffordu]

23. Yep - I have just about given up hope.

[Kievan Rus]

21. Bread and circuses every day

[azmouse]

22. We're in some deep shit...

...and we don't have enough shovels.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

24. Excellently written.

Brutal assessment. I fear he is spot-on.

[Spazito]

26. Excellent, absolutely excellent article!

A must read, imo.

Recommended.

[Mimosa]

28. Sounds like our HOA

A young woman, her mother and a real estate agent came to the HOA meeting which freezes out my partner who attends anyway. They were asking for an exception to the no sublet rule. The young woman had been trying to sell her unit for nearly a year and was nearly crying, asking them to give her a break so she wouldn't have to get foreclosed.Real estate is overbuilt and nothing's selling in our area. The HOA board were very mean to the petitioners and wouldn't even answer them. They're all older folks, past 60. And I'm pretty sure they're all Republicans. One of them had Sarah Palin's book on her coffee table when the book was just out.

Another I was talking to, telling her that times are hard for many people and they can't afford increased fees and such. She actually replied "I'm retired, I've got mine, and I don't care about anybody else."

[Hawkowl]

33. Idiots

What do they think will happen to their property values once she is foreclosed on and the bank sells the property for 50% off?

[disillusioned73]

38. One of them will probably buy it at that point..

squat on it and turn a profit down the road - ahhh the American dream. We have a nation of vampires..

[JuniperLea]

43. I'm about to take my HOA to court...

Idiots are on my last nerve. Real Estate attorneys are a pain in the ass, and expensive as hell. I'm hoping to find a community organization of some sort to help with my issue. We've got many "I've got mine" types in the complex... and I suspect some crooks too.

Good luck.

[me b zola]

29. K&R

[mzteris]

30. um - not to start a whole "thing"

or anything, but religion plays a major role in this.

Trying to hold two conflicting things in your head at the same time - reality and - um - imagination.

[inna]

31. Interesting read and he makes some good points, but I didn't like the article

on a whole.

What a weird site, too, I read some comments and people sounded... i dunno, libertarian or something. :shrug:

[JCMach1]

32. I remember in some of my first DU posts pointing out the W was the first post-modern president

I found it amusing at the time that it was a Republican who jumped that couch first. Note, that was in Spring of 2001.

I don't find it amusing at all anymore.

[Dr.Phool]

34. K&R

[Frank Cannon]

35. K & R. This is the best, most sobering article I've read in a while.

It really strikes right at the heart of the problem.

This country needs one huge attitude adjustment, and it's GONNA happen whether we like it or not.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

36. John Lennon had it pegged forty years ago!!

What a prophet!!


"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."


We have a society run by sociopaths and narcissists in order to maximize profits of corporations, who incorporate to escape responsibility for their actions. A person who does not take responsibility for their actions is a sociopath/narcissist.

Business as usual for a corporation is severe pathology in an individual.

[cliffordu]

39. Yep. game set and match.

[kgnu_fan]

41. He writes so clearly. "The goal will become the ability to endure."

It is like Russia or China. We need to learn fast in order to survive the age of horrific suppression/oppression. I was hoping that American people would be much wiser not to have to go through this.