A Letter From A Friend -"This is such a wierd time."

[bigtree]

Got this letter from my friend. (Yeah, I got one friend.) I wondered if there were folks out there as hurt and cynical as him, or less, and attribute most of that to 9-11 and would be willing to express that here in response to his pessimism. Try to be nice.


This is such a wierd time. Stranger than last year. I am not crazy,
people are truley fucked man. I couldn't even begin to explain it if I tried. All I can say is that there is alot of people in denial right now and I am not one of them. I look around me I study people I read their minds. I see it on the surface even though they try to keep it tucked away. I am not trying to be negative here I just see nothing good happening, nobody happy, no happiness. People walking around with all the goodness in them long since drained and now gone. No compassion just a bunch of zombies with no human feelings or decency. Just like you once dreamed.

People Wondering aimlessly about with no place to go and an empty cold heart. 99% of the people I talk to believe that 9-11 has nothing to do with all of this. I however do not see it this way. I cannot be fooled in this way.

That is what I am trying to say here. After 9-11 everyone went into self survival mode. Self survival mode requires one to think only of himself and sever ties with family and friends. A basic human instinct for self preservation. (not everyone got selfish just most did so i dont mean you, you are of the 1%) How come I see this and practically no one else does? What am I "The chosen one?"

A famous quote by someone famous but I don't know who said it,
" As the world grows worse so does man "

I love you Man!

KB

[skooooo]

1. where's your friend?

just trying to understand the context of this..

[bigtree]

2. He's just another working stiff

What does it matter?

[seabeyond]

3. i understand your friend

he is beyond and he is seeing things that is new to him in a way that is new to him. from the feel of his words. there was a major shift after 9/11. this goes to energy and spiritual or universal power or lite or however one choses to see it. an awareness came onto a lot of people. they went beyond the 3d dimension of life on beyond the 4d in life. tis interesting and i bet if your friend wanted to explore some other areas and site he might better understand what he is experiencing

or not

[Ysabel]

4. much love to your friend...n/t...

[bigtree]

5. kick for a good guy

[sixtoes1]

6. I have no idea what he's talking about

I don't see any of that. Don't know what to tell ya. The "chosen one" needs help, though.

[Indiana_Dem]

7. I can see these things, too, but I don't feel it was 9/11.

I started to see these things in the early 80s when I moved away from home and "grew up". But I REALLY started feeling like your friend when I found out we were going to war in Iraq. Wrong, wrong, wrong was all I felt about it. I haven't been able to shake it off since. People are in a fantasy world/illusion right now (in America). They just don't know it. Someone had a good quote on their sig line from Frank Zappa, I think. Something about pulling the curtains back and then seeing the brick at the back of the theatre stage(reality)....I liked that quote. People are slowly waking up but their not waking up very happy. That's what is so scary.

[NightTrain]

8. I've long felt like that guy at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers

"AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES?"

[MetaTrope]

9. Direct him to DU

He won't feel so alone.

[Lorien]

10. I understand how he feels

there has been a tremendous amount of cocooning going on in this country for many years now, and it started before 9/11 yet has been increasingly fueled by 9/11. The beginnings of it I blame on our consumer culture, with values status and goods over human beings. We are bombarded incessantly with commercialism, which breeds fear; if you don't drink Pepsi, you aren't young, if you don't use Dove soap, you'll be rough skinned and unloved, If you don't drive an SUV, you'll be impotent and your neighbors won't respect you, etc. etc. The drive becomes one not of gathering meaningful relationships in our lives, but one of collecting THINGS which we are told will bring us love and acceptance. We work harder, we become exhausted and overwhelmed. Add to that the new fears brought on by 9/11, the Iraq war, the crumbling economy, and an administration whose only tool for control over the masses is fear. It's too much for most people; they cocoon further, they work harder because they MUST now; the future is so uncertain that they must squirrel away all they can now.

I have a fair number of friends, not a lot, but I need more than one hand to count them all. My birthday was last week, and I got two phone calls, one gift, and one card. Last year I must have received a dozen cards at least and half as many phone calls, but I don't blame my friends and family for forgetting; many have LOST their jobs this year, at least two are considering bankruptcy. They are stressed out by both world events and their own situations, there isn't room for much else in their lives right now.

The thing I've been wondering about, though, is what happened to America's "can do" spirit that prevailed during previous troubled times? My grandparents lived through the depression, and I can recall one of my Grandmothers saying how wonderful those times were; they had such close friendships back then, and would do ANYTHING for one another. They would share meals together, play touch football in the living room with pals on rainy days, help one another buy new shoes or a bus ticket to visit relatives..why have we changed so much?It seems we had a choice on 9/11- come together, grow closer and stronger,brush ourselves off and move ahead, enlightened or fall apart and switch to thumbsucking survival mode, see the world as one full of bogymen and hatred, lock ourselves away with only the glowing glass teat to keep us company. It seems that 90% or more chose the latter, and the glass teat now tells them how to think and feel. The only hope is for each of us to reach out and try to effect what change we can for the better. Write, talk, call...just don't give in, and try not to lose hope.

[bigtree]

11. This is priceless

Thanks a whole bunch!

[G_j]

12. very good observation

and you are so right, we must make a real effort to reach out and maintain some sort of community. That is very sound advice!

[Lexingtonian]

13. Transition times are always nasty

It's not 9/11. It's that everyone senses that the society as a whole is confused and schizophrenic and stalemated. Its supposed leaders don't know what to do with it other than steal from it and run it into the ground.

There is no defining Purpose for American society to knocking off a senile dictator in a weak, small, country in an alien culture on the other side of the world, or knocking off a few dozen violent anarchists of the region aka Terrorists. Or just lowering taxes on those people who have no real excuse for why to do it, just ability to pay off the Administration and Republican Party to do so.

That trickles down to the average person in due course. We're presently a society defined by its kleptocracy and everything else in the society is stagnant or in decay as the parasites ruin the gains at the margins. This is a society where goodness is punished rather than rewarded.

But this will change. The unbearable stalemate will break, and break our way and not theirs.