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Bonhomme Richard

(9,000 posts)
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 05:36 PM Dec 2012

For starters I think this country has a serious paranoia issue.

And the issue is national. It goes to the core of who we are.
We show it in the massive size of our defense spending compared to any other nation
We show it when we buy 20 guns as opposed to one or two to do a specific task
We show it when we are afraid to try a terrorist in any of our cities
We show it through our governments dealings with other nations
We show it in our loathing of those less fortunate because they are getting stuff for free
We show it when so many would pull a lever that would put Sarah Palin within a breath of the Presidency
We show it when we blame those that are different for our problems
We show it when the teabaggers scream about what they think they might lose
We show it when we think that Acorn stole the election.
We show it when we roll over to the 1% because they may make our life more difficult if we complain too much
We show it when we won't go to the grocery store without carrying a gun...just in case.
I could go on and on.
It seems we can't exist as a nation unless we are fighting some boogieman. Our nation is the mental equivalent of a six year old.
The reality is that we are taught from infancy that we are on our own, our history is individualism, no one has our back, and if we fail it our own fault. It has only increased our sense of vulnerability and, rather than increase our sense of community, we have been drawn deeper and deeper into tribalism.

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patrice

(47,992 posts)
2. Yes, "taught from infancy" the wrong stuff, so the paranoia is the TRUTH ABOUT OURSELVES
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 05:42 PM
Dec 2012

that we fear, because we deny it, so we become our own enemies and fear ourselves, which further drives us into ignorance and dishonesty.

I like that, "our nation is the mental equivalent of a six year old" because even those of us who have some "claim" on awareness and what we call "knowledge" learn always how little we know.

Like Heinlein's Michael Valentine Smith said in Stranger in a Strange Land, "I am an egg."

rrneck

(17,671 posts)
3. I dont think it's paranoia per se,
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 05:49 PM
Dec 2012

but rather paranoia as a function of overconsumption. When paranoia becomes a product it becomes the source of a revenue stream for disaster capitalists.

Bonhomme Richard

(9,000 posts)
4. Not a psychologist but it is clearly paranoia to me if you are....
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 06:00 PM
Dec 2012

afraid to leave your home without a gun or need to have a military many, many times greater than that of your closest potential enemy even when it's clear that money would be better spent at home.
No....we are mental and it is only getting worse. Even in my short 59 years I remember a time that we wore the white hats and did not torture, or at the least, did not advertise it.

csziggy

(34,136 posts)
6. And incidents of violence just cause more paranoia
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 06:04 PM
Dec 2012

It's an out of control loop.

On a crime forum, many people had the response to the Connecticut shooting that they will go out any buy (more) guns. Some want their children's teachers armed as if that would stop this cycle.

rrneck

(17,671 posts)
9. Our military isn't paranoia
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 06:14 PM
Dec 2012

it protects our empire. And our empire overwhelmingy supports the wealthy. Nothing has changed. It's always been a rich man's war and a poor man's fight.

The last I heard there were about eight million carry permits issued. While the United States is a pretty safe country in which to live, people still get assaulted, and we don't know who they will be before it happens. That's why there will always be a lot of people who carry a gun but never need it.

BeyondGeography

(39,375 posts)
5. Bellow has a line about our Christianity in Herzog that jumped out at me
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 06:02 PM
Dec 2012

To paraphrase, Christianity assumes we are fallen from some theoretical time of classical perfection, so we are naturally in a state of perpetual crisis until we either regain the blissful state or, more likely, the arrival of end times.

Herzog found it all illusory and an utter waste of anyone's time. His life was a mess, but he got that one right, I think.

XemaSab

(60,212 posts)
12. Not just that, but there's a certain "shit happens" mentality
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 06:49 PM
Dec 2012

One of the fundies I am "researching" said:

Murder is, absolutely and unquestionably, the result of a soul at war with God and His standard. When man is in rebellion against God he starts to rebel against all that God has created or done. Murder is one of the more extreme manifestations of this rebellion, but it’s a manifestation that we are going to continue to see as long as men have a sin nature.

So what should our response be? Well, first, it shouldn’t be to ignore and break God’s law as we look for an answer or solution. I’ve heard people suggest all manner of solutions, like locking up all people with histories of mental illness. If we do this we are going down the same road today’s shooter went down: acting out of a desire to conform the world to our own will apart from submitting to what the Law of God has to say. We would be responding with lawless emotionalism.

Two days ago my wife badly cut herself while using a kitchen appliance. It didn’t malfunction; she just misused it. But part of me wanted to take the appliance, throw it on the floor, and stomp it into oblivion - I was angry over the harm done to my wife. But this response would not have been lawful - I had to pray to God, humble myself, accept His will for my wife, and respond in a righteous manner. A manner conformed to God’s Law. It wasn’t easy, and I don’t expect that tonight is easy on the grieving families of this nation. But when tragedy strikes (even if it’s just a cut finger) we can’t respond with lawless emotionalism.

We must instead look to God and submit our will to His. We must submit our thoughts and reason to His.

We also need to recognize that murder is not caused by economic disadvantages, poor parenting, bad upbringing, lax gun laws, mental problems, easy access to drugs or alcohol, bullying at school, relationship problems, bad test scores, or any of the other excuses we have heard in the past and will undoubtedly hear again. Murder is caused by unchecked sin in the heart of man - as God warned Cain before he killed Abel, “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it” (Gen 4 ). All of us, saved and unsaved alike, have sin in our hearts. We must take responsibility for it and strive to rule over it.

And as the media plays the blame game we must recognize that each individual has eternal responsibility for his own sin. God will judge today’s shooter for all the murders that he committed. And there will be no excuses, no “not guilty by reason of insanity.” God’s perfect and eternal justice will fall upon today’s shooter - there will be justice for the wrongs committed today.

And that should scare us, because today’s shooter, in a lot of ways, is not that different from us: we all have sin and hatred in our hearts - we’ve all had murderous thoughts and desires - we just haven’t carried them out. We must admit that each of us have committed sins (Matt 5:21, Matt 5:27) worthy of God’s perfect and eternal justice falling on us. But there is salvation and mercy in Christ. And not only salvation for eternity but also sanctification for this life: we must rule over the sin in our hearts, but that’s not possible until we have Christ. Those of us who are in Christ are promised that we won’t be tempted beyond our ability (1 Cor 10:13).

Finally, we need to pray. We need to pray for our nation, that it would repent and turn towards Christ. We must also pray for the families that are hurting tonight. I have a nine-month-old daughter and can’t even begin to imagine the pain that would come with her death. We should pray for these families that God would extend to them grace, mercy, and comfort. For those that are saved, we should pray that God would use this time to work even greater sanctification in their lives. Our Father in heaven knows and understands the pain they are feeling - He gave His own Son for us. For those without Christ we should pray that God would use this tragedy to make Himself known to them.


The only call to action here is for repentance. Other than that, there's an attitude that whatever happens is God's will.

There's a train of thought here that if we cut off welfare and a million people starve to death, it's God's will, or if there are no building safety codes and a building collapses and a couple hundred people die, it's God's will.

For people who claim to have a "culture of life," there's very little concern for preventing future deaths.

BeyondGeography

(39,375 posts)
13. Reality-averse
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 06:55 PM
Dec 2012

and an actual denial of basic steps that society can take to improve our stay here. It's a problem.

meow2u3

(24,764 posts)
11. America doesn't have as much as a paranoia issue
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 06:29 PM
Dec 2012

as much as we have a mass propaganda problem. This country is being brainwashed by organized money--the masterminds that foment the violent gun culture. Not even the blood of innocent human life as in this last slaughter of 6- and 7-year-old children can stop their lust for power and profiteering. The paranoia is the result, not the cause, of a nonstop propaganda campaign that plays on people's fears and twists the 2nd Amendment into giving a certain segment of society a license to arm themselves to the teeth, putting cold steel before the sanctity of innocent human life (after birth).

The corporate media hype and hyperbole coming from industry front groups; the scare tactics perpetrated by the gun industry (the NRA is actually the middleman in all this) to con frightened little boys in men's bodies (it is predominantly a male phenomenon) by pandering to a bully-boy macho image to convince them that real men shoot and kill people; right-wing shock jocks, working for right-wing multimillionaires and multibillionaires, who use our public airwaves to con the public and turn them against anyone who'd threaten the supremacy of organized money; and a timid and intimidated political class either too cowed or bought off by this segment of organized money, i.e., the firearms lobby.

The gun lobby has installed, by their bribes campaign contributions and extortion and blackmail threats of primary challenges, politicians and judges--even Supreme Court justices--that bend to the will of the gun lobby, which is part and parcel of organized money.

Bonhomme Richard

(9,000 posts)
15. For Pete's sake. We have one national party whose whole existence is based on fear.
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 07:38 PM
Dec 2012

There is a feeling of personal isolation here. I'll never forget listening to an interview with a woman from Canada who had come to the states for a second visit and remarked how people had changed. When asked what she meant by that she said that it baffled her at first and then she realized that the cause was that, in this country, no one had your back and you felt very alone with your troubles.
The thing is, we keep taking this social darwinism to new levels and it affects the national psyche.
Yes, more and more see a need to move this country forward but when you have 50% of the population that thinks that praying to Zeus, or it might as well be Zeus, will make things better then we have a long, long road to go.
As far as guns go, how many (other than historic collectors, target shooters or hunters) would actually go out and buy them if it wasn't based on some fear/paranoia.

applegrove

(118,696 posts)
16. The people of the USA did the heavy
Sat Dec 15, 2012, 08:30 PM
Dec 2012

lifting in regards to communism. We in Canada were not as paranoid as you were taught to be during the cold war. So paranoia is a holdover behaviour in older Americans. It is already in their brain and the right wing just capitalizes on way of thinking to make the enemies of the rich, government and intellectual elites, the enemy of regular people who end up then voting against their own best interest for the GOP.

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