tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484662326396778106.post5010416033155887819..comments2023-11-05T03:25:20.581-08:00Comments on STOP THE MADNESS: CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: OUR BIPOLAR DISORDERRick Staggenborg, MDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16587630200799702811noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3484662326396778106.post-72699129143043325302010-08-02T13:05:57.060-07:002010-08-02T13:05:57.060-07:00This was a very enjoyable essay to write in that i...This was a very enjoyable essay to write in that it allowed me to meld concepts from Psycholgy, Sociology and Political Science to give some perspective on the way in which society has broken down since the Vietnam war, as detalied in Putnam's brilliant study of the breakdown of social capital in Bowling Alone.<br /><br />I disagree with Dr Putnam that the war itself was not a major cause of the breakdown in civility and social cohesiveness. Just because he could not prove the case statistical does not mean that it was not more important than the rise of TV and later, the Internet. <br /><br />Vietnam provided the impetus that started the United States on it's rapid decline downhill. Parents and children, conservatives and liberals were suddenly at war with each other. The war was brought into our living rooms and the emotions aroused by the images of war sparked strong emotional reactions in all who watched the evening news. Neighbors and even spouses stopped talking to each other when they could not tolerate the anger of those with divergent opinions.<br /><br />Vietnam led to the splitting of the generations, as young people threatened with pointless death in the jungle grew more and more angry while many adults clung to the illusion that we were fighting for freedom and democracy rather than naked power and Empire for the few who profited from the 58,000 deaths that eventually resulted from our forgetting that any nation will defend itself when invaded. <br /><br />The United States fought back when Britain tried to enforce corporate privlege by sending warships to avenge the loss of property by the East India Company and its wealthy stockholders in the Boston Tea Party. The men and women we now call patriots were the insurgents and rebels of their day. How ironic that right-wingers told us to "love it or leave it" when we tried to point out that dissent is an act of patriotism.<br /><br />In the political realm, Nixon started using the politics of division in his ultimately pointless effort to subvert the Constitution in his ruthless effort to extend his power and that of the corporatocracy who had given it to him. We are reaping the whirlwind of our allowing angry, veangeful and ultimately selfish men to lead the world's greatest superpower since the Roman Republic.<br /><br />Now, we find ourselves battered and demoralized by the apparently successful coup of the corporations who dictate legislation to our Senate and policy to our Presidents. It is up to us to forget the slights of the past and to quit regarding politics as a zero-sum game played by teams of professional politicians who are now playing for the same owner, the international corporate terrorists who start wars for their own perceived short-sighted interests.<br /><br />We are all in this together. We can rebuild the infrastructure of American society only when we work together for the greater good of all. Ayn Rand was dead wrong. If we are truly selfish creatures driven by Id, we are also creatures capable of reasoning and deciding that our individual survival depends on taking care of the least among us, lest we lose our souls and destroy the planet in the aftermath.Rick Staggenborg, MDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16587630200799702811noreply@blogger.com