We’re transfixed. We’re stunned, aghast, horrified.
We’re paralyzed and unbelievably ‘stuck.’ As a people, we’re petrified.
Under the surface, on some deep inner level, all of us know or sense that our world is teetering precariously on the edge of … something really awful. But it’s quite unclear whether, as poet T.S. Eliot put it, the “world ends” with a nuclear “bang” or with a pathetic “whimper.” (Or … revitalization?)
Now, I don’t really think the world is ‘ending.’ But our collective world-view and our domineering Western approach to life may be dying a slow death. And the ongoing collapse of our wrong-headed, mechanistic paradigm of life makes for incredibly difficult and stressful times. Difficult and crazy-making times.
We’re experiencing increasing mental, emotional, and moral deterioration
About 2 years ago I wrote an article focused on the question: Can an entire society go collectively crazy? [The answer is, yes, it can happen. Just think of Nazi Germany or the Rwandan genocide.] More recently, I also wrote several articles focusing on America’s accelerating ‘downward spiral.’
Well, here we are, 1–2 years later, and the exact same bizarre and frightening trends have been … worsening. No one wants to talk much about it, but as a former psychological professional I’ve been growing increasingly worried about Americans’ mental and emotional health.
That’s because Americans’ mental/emotional health seems to be deteriorating fast — as are our social empathy and ability to compromise and cooperatively run our society. Mass shootings and intense political conflicts are on the rise, and a sizeable portion of American voters now believes that right-wing political violence is OK and justifiable (of course, they react very harshly to any hint of left-wing violence).
Many of these converts to utilitarian political violence hail from the far right — a group that formerly trumpeted its strict ‘law and order’ stance and, incredibly, still does.
That’s the kind of fast-increasing mental/emotional/moral deterioration I’m referring to. Talk about massive hypocrisy and mass ‘cognitive dissonance’ (amid rising fascism)! For these folks have no problem at all with political violence — as long as their side wins.
The hate and ugliness are still ramping up
Just the other day, I was talking with an old friend about these issues, and we both agreed that the emotional and social atmosphere in the U.S. has turned really ugly — and the ugliness is still ramping up.
To describe what’s happening we used words like hate, frenzy, rage, paranoia, and mass hysteria — and the fact we were using these particular words to describe a significant portion of our population is both telling and terrifying.
Over the past eight years, as the U.S. reeled, vacillated, and stumbled badly in dealing with Trump and his fascist-friendly MAGA movement, it’s gotten clearer and clearer that societal peace and somewhat effective sociopolitical functioning are a rare and truly wondrous occurrence in human affairs.
The U.S. has always prided itself on its democratic process and on standing ‘above the fray’ when it comes to widespread political violence — due to our erroneous belief in American ‘exceptionalism’ — but that misplaced pride is now collapsing, and our representative democracy is under attack and tottering.
Considering all that’s happened in the U.S. since 2015, we can no longer lay claim to any moral high ground. Worse, the prospects for intense partisan violence surrounding Trump’s looming prosecutions and the upcoming ’24 election are steadily increasing, and the social and political functioning of our nation is still spiraling downward.
Put differently: our society is fast becoming more unpleasant, more dysfunctional, and downright oppressive in many areas and in most ‘red’ states.
Well-functioning, enjoyable societies have to be grown and nurtured
It turns out, we who grew up in the late 20th century got to experience and live through the high point of ‘liberal democracy’ in the U.S. Today, though, much of the U.S. is reverting to its former racist, unjust, heavily right-wing ways — and many of our fellow Americans are now working hard to overturn and undo decades of social and political progress.
It turns out that peaceful, open-minded, and fair societal functioning is a true rarity — and is quite difficult to maintain and grow. Yes, well-functioning, enjoyable societies have to be grown and nurtured, and require a lot of care and maintenance.
But in today’s America, our collective mindset has been turning more and more toward divisiveness, ultra-partisan hatreds, and fear-based, intense reactivity. Paranoia, anger, and intense partisanship rule; gone are the days when Democrats and Republicans could work together — sometimes, at least — for the common good.
The deeply frightening thing, to me, is that what’s replacing cooperation and/or compromise is a toxic stew of hate, vitriol, stubborn recalcitrance, racism, and ‘other blaming.’
As noted above, it’s difficult to maintain and uphold a relatively peaceful, functional society: it takes a lot of goodwill, cooperation, and ongoing work.
Conversely, it’s quite simple and easy to ruin and totally destabilize a society. All it takes is a small, committed minority — just a tiny percentage of the population — of enraged, intentionally disruptive extremists.
And guess what: we’ve all been witnessing exactly that over the past eight years.
We’ve all been witnessing the rapid spread of UNtruth, deception, far-right propaganda, sedition, anti-immigrant messaging, and massive, frequent public manipulation (emanating from the Orange Menace and his copycat rivals) … which paves the way for increased intolerance and spreading hate and violence … which stimulates deep fear and anxiety in most of us … which ramps up our collective ‘fight or flight’ responses … which hurls us into ongoing, deepening PTSD (post-traumatic stress) … which tends to drive our positive emotions and empathic responses straight into the ground … which leaves us trapped in our own negative emotions, paranoia, and mounting fear.
Our collective mental health is going down the toilet
In terms of mental, emotional, and even spiritual health, America’s current trajectory is a total nightmare. We are truly spiraling downward at an astonishing rate, and as we do our collective mental health is getting flushed down the toilet as well.
So where is the outrage? Where is morality? What happened to our minds, values, and sanity, for heaven’s sake?!
My main point is this: Living in and enjoying a relatively sane, peaceful society is NOT a given, and it’s certainly NOT a sure thing.
Many nations and societies around the world are social and political disaster zones, where peaceful coexistence is a rarity and open social and political conflict rule the day. Only a small handful of nations and societies have managed to create and maintain livable, enjoyable, open societies — for instance, most of the nations in the EU.
We in the U.S. were on our way there. We really were moving in that direction — briefly.
We were on our way toward having a livable, enjoyable, open society — but then the right’s intense counter-reaction set in, featuring a decades-long resistance and counterattack, and our ability to maintain such a growing, open society plummeted fast.
And as this reactive, restrictive mindset took hold, Americans’ collective mental health likewise started to plummet.
Now it’s A-OK to be a racist, hateful, malevolent bully
The low point (so far) of this frightening and disheartening process was reached during and after Trump’s presidency. He literally embodied all of the most hateful, racist, selfish, and downright nasty impulses that afflict human beings — and his ascent to power quickly made it just fine (on the right, anyway) to be racist, hateful, uncooperative, and nasty.
He made it A-OK to be a self-centered, malevolent bully.
To me, that’s the bottom-line truth concerning what’s happening to Americans’ mental/emotional health — and our morality as well. Somehow, we have to free ourselves from the awful influence of Trumpism and find ways to restore vital traits like kindness, generosity, empathy, cooperation, and yes, love.
For if we continue much further down our current destructive path … well, that way lies total madness, ruin, and social collapse.
—
This post was previously published on medium.com.
***
From The Good Men Project on Medium
 |
 |
 |
 |
***
Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—–
Photo credit: Arisa Chattasa on Unsplash
