The 4 Plagues: Getting a Handle on the Coming Apocalypse

From AlterNet:

Every day, thousands, probably millions of people ask their family, friends, neighbors and colleagues similar and increasingly familiar questions: What has happened to our country? How did we get here? Isn’t it scary? Can anything be done about it?

There is an abundance of evidence that there are forces tearing apart the U.S. economy and society, causing increasing levels of fear, anxiety and trauma for large numbers of people. Many people are mystified as to the specific causes of their fears, with a mass media system that constantly broadcasts propaganda about how great America is and a new digital media system that may be exacerbating the problems for a society under immense and unprecedented duress.

There is the added problem that the theories and the means of social change we are familiar with, and to which we still turn, are not remotely up to the task we face, and have mostly proven to be inadequate. Virtually every problem we face has gotten worse over the past 40 years, and heavily sped up since 9/11 and the economic crash of 2007.

In an environment of confusion and despair, it can be helpful to name the beast—essentially to understand the forces at play, how they operate, and why they feel both intractable and overwhelming. So, what follows is a kind of Users' Guide To What Is Freaking Us Out.”

More here.

It may very well be that the biggest problem facing us right now is that it is extraordinarily difficult to get a handle on the seeming INFINITUDE of problems facing us right now.  

Politicians and the news media do a lousy job of connecting the dots, of creating an accurate narrative, or even a narrative at all.  The old narrative, American dream, work hard and succeed, freedom, whatever, is obviously no longer operative, but that's only the case when you can step back and take a look at the big picture.  Most people, however, either can't or won't see the big picture, which leaves them desperately clinging to the old mythology, wondering what they did wrong to keep them from living it out.  When you try to explain to them the entirety of what we're facing as a nation, you begin to realize that the story just goes on and on and on.  And who wants to hear a long and very depressing story?

I, for one, have given up on trying to explain everything.  I've settled for simply trying to expose the cracks in the American Dream story, trying to make plain the absurdities embedded within it, and hoping against hope that I can get some people thinking about things in ways they haven't before.  I can't change the whole country, but I can conceivably affect the people around me.  Maybe, just maybe, lots of other people are doing the same thing, too.  Maybe one day I'll look around and notice that everybody is doing the same thing.  Then we'll be ready for some real change.

At any rate, if you do want to try to get a handle on what's going on, the article linked above is about as concise as you can get.  Go check it out.

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