The stress is starting to get to us as a nation.

[Philosoraptor]

Not just here, things get quite stressed here, but let's face it, it's in the air, all across America, the stress is starting to get to us all, in subtle ways, and in obvious ways.

Let's focus on the source of our national stress, and let's realize that yes, we are all very stressed right now, and too much stress is unhealthy and it slows you down in your duty.

Our duty is to get our country back from the maniacs, THEY are the source of all stress right now.

Let's not take it out on each other, let's take it out on the neo con assholes who hijacked America.

Dr. Phil

[Solly Mack]

1. I knew it!

:P

[Double T]

2. Until 'WE' remove their corrupt criminal asses from power...........

'WE' will continue to be very stressed and our nation will continue in a downward spiral.

[cassiepriam]

3. We are in the midst of a civil war fought with words and ideas.

Started by Rove et al for the purpose of stealing the US and the world. All for money and power.

[liberal N proud]

4. The stress isn't going anywhere until there is some real change in leadership

As long as the powers that control this nation have their strangle hold on us the stress will continue.
It will continue to worsen as more and more we are hit with their onslaught of actions that adversely effect the nation and us personally. The war is taking it's toll on the nation as a whole on top of the people personally effected by the deaths.
Criminally high gas prices are effecting each and everyone of us personally.

[Philosoraptor]

5. Malaise

1 : an indefinite feeling of debility or lack of health often indicative of or accompanying the onset of an illness
2 : a vague sense of mental or moral ill-being <a malaise of cynicism and despair --

President Jimmy Carter was trashed for using the word, but it's painfully appropriate now.

[gratuitous]

10. And Carter didn't even use the word "malaise"

As Casey Stengel was wont to say, you could look it up.

Anyway, I don't think the nation is "starting" to show signs of stress. The signs have been there for years; the signs are getting more frequent, though. And like any phenomena that gets noticed after perking along below the level of consciousness for a while, you can suddenly see the obvious signs everywhere, once you are persuaded that the nation is under tremendous stress.

People have been quietly and not-so-quietly been going nuts for the past four or five years. The not-so-quiet nutsiness is getting more and more apparent with each day, and more people are tuned into it. I agree that real leadership change is necessary, but it's an institutional thing, and one person in the White House or one person as the perceived "leader" of the anti-war movement isn't going to be our savior. Real, lasting change will be effected when a large segment of the population is invested in it, and committed to it.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't start right now, and in whatever way seems best. The job is huge, and just because someone's doing something in their neck of the woods one way, it shouldn't distract any of us from doing what we think necessary in our little parcel of the country.

[partylessinOhio]

6. Is America beyond saving?

:shrug:

[Bobbieo]

7. My stress is created by the lack of checks and balances

in our system.They are there but no being used! No one seems to be able to stop Bush as the "decider" from doing anything he wants to. It makes him appear to be a dictator in a democratic society. The fact that he only has a year an a half in office seems to placate the majority of people in this country and their complacancy scares me because of his increasing arrogance.

It is like he is thumbing his nose at all of us and we are letting him get away with it.

[Philosoraptor]

8. The lack of action against these criminals is alarming.

And sad.

[bdamomma]

12. he is getting away with it, and doesn't WE THE PEOPLE mean

anything any more. Is this country paralyzed or something?? now I can understand why Germany fell, are we going to let this continue, we have wackjobs in power.

[BlackVelvet04]

9. Someone on another board suggested the problem is......

Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which an animal has learned to believe that it is helpless. It has come to believe that it has no control over its situation and that whatever it does is futile. As a result, the animal will stay passive in the face of an unpleasant, harmful or damaging situation, even when it does actually have the power to change its circumstances. Learned helplessness theory is the view that depression results from a perceived lack of control over the events in one's life, which may result from prior exposure to (actually or apparently) uncontrollable negative events.



Not all people become depressed as a result of being in a situation where they appear not to have control. In what learned-helplessness pioneer M.E.P. Seligman called "explanatory style," people in a state of learned helplessness view problems as personal, pervasive, or permanent. That is,

* Personal - They may see themselves as the problem; that is, they have internalized the problem.
* Pervasive - They may see the problem as affecting all aspects of life.
* Permanent - They may see the problem as unchangeable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness

[bdamomma]

11. exactly they are psychologically wearing us down, it should be the

other way around.

[NightWatcher]

13. It's what the Good Doctor called "Fear and Loathing" and he could not have been more right

We fear the unknown and loathe that which is different. F&L have been the motivation for several bad times both here and abroad.

On an somewhat related note, this is just history repeating itself, as it will tend to do. We are venturing into Roman Empire and German Empire times. All great empires rise and fall, and we as a country are only teenagers. I just hope to survive the painful transition.

[BluePatriot]

14. I agree.

I think there are a lot of people who are waking up to the way they feel w/o being able to put a finger on "why" exactly. I like being there for them to talk to, having come to a lot of conclusions about our country's general direction they may not have.