Frank Rich Scratches the Surface of America's Denial Crisis

Whats it gonna take to open the eyes of Americans in denial?

Frank Rich scratches that surface, in his Sunday Op-ed, What We Don't Know Will Hurt Us, and all that's clear is that its all unclear.

No one knows, of course, but a bigger question may be whether we really want to know. One of the most persistent cultural tics of the early 21st century is Americans’ reluctance to absorb, let alone prepare for, bad news. We are plugged into more information sources than anyone could have imagined even 15 years ago. The cruel ambush of 9/11 supposedly “changed everything,” slapping us back to reality. Yet we are constantly shocked, shocked by the foreseeable. Obama’s toughest political problem may not be coping with the increasingly marginalized G.O.P. but with an America-in-denial that must hear warning signs repeatedly, for months and sometimes years, before believing the wolf is actually at the door.

Its starting to sound to me like Americans are slowly backing towards the real rude awakening, and no matter how many years of warnings there have been, the evidence laid out on the table in the hard light of day, and our crushing need, need, need to hold on to the dreams and possibilities; the American Dream, with all of its boring stability, yet promise of how things could change with one lottery ticket or game show win, the reality of the situation is so bad that even considering the alternative of a normal life of making ends meet causes many to cling hopelessly to the chance rather than live in the reality. Its not the safety from the terra that we really want, its our 15 minutes of fame! That's because we're special! I don't know if we know what we want, really. With all that information out there, it seems that we have become more provincial in our tastes than ever. Maybe the menu is too big.

Rich talks about our "cultural pattern of denial," as if it just came about on its own and wasn't born of a system that purely and clearly doesn't work. Yeah, I'm talking about capitalism; the unregulated brand. American Dream Capitalism can only flourish, and then temporarily, in a world where credit companies go hand in hand with advertisers, hand in hand with retailers, paying less and less to workers, who then need more credit to fulfill what the advertisers tell them to want. The media claims that they are just giving the American people what they want, but I don't think that its possible to know what you want with no clear idea of whats out there, relatively, in a world full of differences and possibilities. Its all a big manipulation for which each generation will blame the one before it, but clearly, we have a skewed world view anyway, so infighting isn't going to help. The truth may be that the sham of the American Dream is that its not really enough because we are so spoiled that even if we don't personally need that fame, we need to watch others gaining and losing it on our large screen TV.

The fear that we are traipsing down the path to socialism is very real to many for whom capitalism has done little. Why is that?
We are, in fact, a semi-socialist country with what little that really works here being part of that redistribution thing that is so hated. Most people knee jerk about keeping the money they earn and yet pay private insurance companies a premium level premium only to have to do battle when push comes to shove, and live at the mercy of which doctor takes which.

I'm not against everyone making a fair or comfortable living, but its clear to me that if regulation stopped the money up top from all traveling upwards, like we used to have a rule of thumb to put a certain amount of profits back into the business, and then pay back into the workers, community, society, and the infrastructure, maybe we all would be a little safer and happier.


The problem is really more of a sociological phenomenon in which rather than being angry at the rich, we direct our anger towards the poor for taking up our resources with their neediness. The truth of this is far from whats disseminated and somehow billions more in corporate welfare is OK, but feeding children is not. Its taken so many, many years of this manipulation for the tables to finally turn. It's taken home movies of gold fixtures and multi million dollar birthday parties, empty accounts where hedge funds were supposed to be, and no bid contracts, carried out by crony companies with ties to the government, (to put it mildly;)...companies that carried out their duties so negligently as to feed tainted water bottles to our soldiers fighting their war of profit, build buildings in which pipes burst and shit dripped from ceilings, and that managed to lose truckloads of cash...truckloads...all of this with evidence in front of the American face. Evidence like videos, documents, drawings, and testimony, and all anyone had to do was to dangle the carrot or the threat of losing the carrot that you don't really own, and we went right back in line.

My big disappointment in the past 8 years has been less the crooks that would steal their own country blind and walk away able to sleep at night, because there are some bad people and absolute power corrupts, etc... but that half the American people went along with it because of some shiny, shiny, and a vial of white powder, to lazy to do the research or even open their eyes.

Its probably not that all of those people are bad, but more a sort of cognitive dissonance, where what is accepted societal behavior becomes corrupted by what is the line from the propaganda team, and the actions following go so against what one stands for that the opposition of the two creates a mental vacuum. It becomes a matter of accepting the unacceptable behavior or admission that one has played a part in something that is criminal or wrong. The wrong becomes the new truth and the person clings to it as if it was the gospel truth because the alternative of having been so wrong and acted on it is too much.

Americans are not raised to look at their reality under the light, lest we become dissatisfied with our position in the order of things, so we cling tighter to the truth that we have come to believe, based in fear or denial, and the slightest possibility of joining the monied classes and the belief that they should be able to keep what they have earned. Every successful American CEO has stood on the shoulders of this entire society to get where he or she is, and a society that allows success even one tiny bit as big as many of them have achieved, deserves a kickback into society's pot; not a tax loophole and an offshore account to try to keep the money that they have earned. The regular American, as well as the poor American is expected to kick back in, but its accepted that the loopholes for the rich exist because they somehow deserve them. This is the group that has benefited the most from the Bush years and their tax cuts. Now some of those guys actually sunk their businesses, took bailout money from taxpayers, and managed to give themselves their huge bonuses at the end of last year. What are we supposed to do with that? Let them get away and we've reinforced the helplessness of law abiding citizens everywhere. Rock the boat too much and the corporate influenced government ceases to move forward.

So, yes Obama is up against it, and he may be the one we need right now in that, as much as he skirts around the truth in the interest of not overwhelming the undereducated masses and offending the cronys, he will state the truth, and he will do what has to be done. I believe that because I have to. I believe that because there is nothing else, except that the specter of families with babies on the street and on the soup line may not hit home until that family is your neighbor...or you...and until the post apocalyptic country starts to look too much like a Mad Max scene that even the Reaganomics of the 80's couldn't fully carry out in NYC. That NYC was where I stepped over the AIDS ravaged homeless and the broken glass of car windows every day for years, shouting at a deaf government, and it was heartbreaking. This is much worse, but we no longer have a government with its fingers in its ears and humming.

How bad does it have to get before we take action? It has to come right to the front door and maybe inside the house! Its gotta take a camera into the Willowbrook asylum and drop a microphone down the well so that we can hear the stuck baby wailing. Its beyond 9-11, obviously and way past Katrina....Being out of work may the the thing that creates time for Americans to reassess whats been happening and to get back to basics.

The same people who very gravely told me in the past 2 presidential elections "I'm not sure if your guy can keep us safe," have to realize that this is not something that any individual can figure out, but rather a broad policy of base belief that got us into or is gonna get us out of the current can o' worms; that base belief should probably start with at least following the constitution and laws, and then turn to how our neighbors are treated. If we give up our base beliefs out of fear, then we have nothing.

Rather, what I was seeing in those frightened voters was the wielding of the power of the vote in the direction of the possibility of winning the lotto and joining the Halliburton class, or remembering some Pearl Harbor memory of America as the Hero, in the right, which was just laughable in its gravity and sincerity, considering what was going on in the world and how we were acting. The same people who wouldn't know a Thief from a Socialist if they hit them in the bank account, thought that they were influencing the halls of power with their belief in a Bush or a McCain or a Palin as a way to stay safe and right; because if the simplistic neocon view of things could keep us safe, then any working stiff espousing at the local bar could make it big, and there is a certain leveling in that bluster, as much as its totally nonsensical.

Americans may need to be slowly led into the harsh reality of what lies ahead. But hopefully it will be done before its too late in a world of tipping points. We may see Obama nationalize the banks and we may see a "socialist" turn to how things are done in this country. The alternative has been tried and it doesn't work, so get ready for something new and maybe even a little familiar.
If its not dawning on the other half by now, then it may never. That doest stop the necessity of moving forward before things get worse.

If in light of the bailouts already put out there, the executives at the huge corporations and banks cant see the path ahead, then they have to go; and not with their golden parachutes either! If the credit companies are only using the bailouts and reorganization to put the screws to their customers rather than stop offering up new credit at every turn and make a sane way to get out of debt, then they will go too, and along the way they will see many more Americans in straight default, rather than honestly trying to pay their debt down.

The real point of this illustrated lesson for the American people and the world is that the dream that you were promised is earned, not promised, and you were bamboozled into a position where you can't earn, beg, borrow, or steal it anymore...its dead! and no matter what anyone says, you cant get anything for free. If the credit industry had to fold and stop offering credit to individuals, how would we live? well, we'd learn. If that effected the world economy horribly and the CEO couldn't get the corporate jet he wanted this year along with his 20 million dollar bonus, well, we would go on and dig out. What we are seeing may be the collapse of unregulated capitalism, and surely, if America doesn't hold those responsible accountable right up to the top, then we are doomed to repeat our mistakes over and over. Laws are no good if they are only for the rabble, especially if everyone right up to the president and his VP get away with murder.

Industry in this country may be based at this point on the vinyl to CD, CD to MP3 player model, just as the digitization of the television signal, (our airwaves,) serves to force new equipment onto Americans credit cards at a time when people just don't have the money to pay that debt back. But at some point, the camel's back breaks; especially when the paying jobs to make that new equipment are long gone to other countries that have entered their own cycle of Americanized mistakes.

So I look forward to hearing a little hard truth. As I said, frank Rich barely scratched the surface of the problem here. Its a problem of growing up and getting with a reality based model, and having the government carry that out in regulating how much these companies can lie to us and entice us to get in too deep, while they stab us in the back, and blame us for being negligent for not reading the print so fine as to serve the smaller denizens of the doll house world. I'd like to see simple terms in normal layman's print, and I'd like to see the country get back on a track that is livable and from which we can recover to a sensible level of realistic living where everyone has a chance and the worker is once again valued as much as the CEO.
c/p Brilliant at Breakfast

Is It Bad? Is It Wrong?...One Foot Still Firmly Planted in the Other America...head in the Cotton Candy Clouds...

I was running around today...through the treadmill of what has become of our social services, and looking up as I drove away from the project town, a beautiful cousin was looking forlornly down from the little white house at the thugs next door who always hang on the steps and always have the thud, thud, thud of rap shaking the house, and knowing that the grandmother is working 24 hours per day till Saturday, and the mother is sort of a wreck, kicked out of her housing in Bridgeport...I looked up as I was driving away from this masterpiece of social engineering, and I thought to myself, how long till she comes down to hang with the guys, ends up pregnant or jumped into a gang? Is she the one with enough resilience to stand her ground and go through the horrible schools and maybe, just maybe, get to college? ....will she be the one to get out?
I drove away with Ben...the chosen one, because I have grown to love him gradually over time, and quite by accident...and why should it be just him?
Well there we were hauling $270 worth of groceries, that I hope will hold them through the Kos weekend along with some pizza and maybe a little Chinese food here and there. Two 13 year old boys eat alot more than you'd think....and how does Ben's mom do it on so little income and so many other kids to feed?
The radio came on and I heard the end of a report about Roberts having fallen at his Maine summer place. I held my breath because I don't want to be someone who hopes for the worst...and away we went to the pharmacy when the 1010 WINS finally came round again to the story and, shushing Ben, I raised my hands and yelled "Seizure!! That could be a stroke or a tumor!!"
Then I felt bad.
Is it wrong?

Ben said something about my reaction and I just looked at him and said something to the effect of, you know, this man represents someone who wants to take your rights away and keep us all trapped in the little box where he thinks god intended us to be..and that he is in his spot forever and is a Bush person.
I stopped and thought to myself, could we be lucky enough to just lose one by accident or by medical tragedy?...maybe he could hold on just long enough to expire when the dems take over.

And so, now I am who Bill O'Reilly says I am.

And he is already fully recovered. It was a known problem and he probably takes medication for it, and its perfectly controlled or he wouldn't have been nominated to the position that he is in.

Today I managed to get little done and come away from what I did feeling really disappointed and downtrodden. My son, Will, is really feeling badly and we've been up at night every night. I'm worried about leaving him, but I think I have to go...and that maybe part of his anxiety is that I am going...
And I have alot of busywork to do involving printing cards and writing up directions about dog food and how to get to appointments.
Then I got a call from Ben saying that his Mom has an emergency and needs me to call her at work...oh, and could I please come and get him because he is alone with his cousins and its so noisy that he cant ready, and hasn't slept....
It turned out, from what I could understand, that she had gotten a notice when she got home on Saturday that she had been behind on the electric bill and that the power was going to be turned off today. She spoke to the electric company and they told her that she had to pay $500 immediately or the power would be gone by the end of today. There she was at work, knowing that everything is precariously balanced and thinking that she would pay what she could by Saturday when she got her welfare checks for the 2 grand kids ($600...$500 of which she had just found out she would have to give to the electric company,) and since she had screwed up the "arrangement" that she had made during her medical crisis in May, she was stone out of luck.
Here is the deal: An "arrangement" with Connecticut Light and Power is what happens when there is no work and you have been sick so cant make the sporadic payments that you usually make just before its too late, as you juggle too many bills, too many kids, and not enough services.
The budget program isn't even an option because you can never quite pay off the arrangement, and every time you are late you sink deeper and deeper towards losing everything....because this is not the only "arrangement" that you've got going.

The very root of this sort of thing smacks of the Company Store that enables but never really gives you an out unless you win the lottery... and there is nothing to do to get out of the hole no matter how hard any one tries. So, why try? Why strive for the American dream or anything? And this is what leads to the thugs who wander the streets and have outstanding warrants for this and that. This is what leads to the accidental pregnancy, the random shooting, the robbery and jail time. But most of all, this is what leads to the anger out of helplessness...and stories of a deported sister who stabbed someone and was jailed and then deported; and that's how that little grandchild came to be here, motherless and an America citizen, but stuck in the other America, which, even as it is, beats the hell out of Haiti right now....

When I called the electric company, I hit the same wall that she had. But I am articulate and was able to implore the woman to look at all possibilities....things that might never get mentioned to someone who speaks broken English and who is making a call from work to keep the lights on for the children that she wont see until Saturday (and did I mention that her pay works out to around $4 an hour before taxes?) got mentioned and I wasn't going away or backing down.
The deal is that there might be some program here in town, and indeed, even the electric company has people who speak French Creole, if one knows that they should ask for that, but it all involves going on the Internet, or going to the government center, and being able to have the translator call at a particular time, and one has to pay for a new pay-as-you-go card for the cell phone...yes, that is 25 cents a minute...because its expensive to be poor and to have no credit.

The deal was that she actually had, over the past couple of years of not having work and not having money, not taking her medication for blood pressure, getting sick, going to school to get the certification for this $4 an hour job, racked up a bill for over $800...and the last "arrangement was for just a few months to take $300 per month, which equals one child's total monthly upkeep, just for the electric bill, to try to make this up. This unreasonable plan could not possibly succeed, but at a point I think that people will just take whatever is offered for fear of having their electricity cut off by the man. I knew that I could offer $20 per month to pay off the balance, and they would have to take it, but the deal that they offered would still make her pay $500 to keep the power on because she had to pay off the last "arrangement" as per "company policy"
The woman was very apologetic, but couldn't budge. Since I am leaving town I am not able to go and barge into the government center tomorrow and figure this out in some reasonable way....I know that there are some services or charities to help with things like this...small loans to set people free, perhaps?
I kept asking a million questions about different possibilities, and finally I said that it was just impossible that they couldn't have a budget plan for people like this. She said, oh yes, but you cant have any outstanding balance. I asked what the monthly payment would be on the budget plan and she said $109. I asked if they had ever been on it...ever..and she said no, that they had just paid sporadically.

So, here is someone who doesn't know what is available to her, and has already fallen behind before she has the opportunity to figure it out. The applications are so difficult anyway that people just stop trying.

What did I do? I paid the entire bill on a credit card and got her back on the budget plan. I told her to pay me what she could when her checks come, but not so much that she cant pay her other bills...and that we can work the rest out. The important thing is that going forward her electric bill is a reasonable amount. I told her that if she gets in trouble that she has to ask for help before it grows beyond the $109...and meanwhile, I have a new job of finding out what assistance exists for the oil bill and the rest. I know that there must be assistance available and that there is also help with the language barrier; its just a matter of having the TIME to make the calls and do the research. Time is what I don't have these days...and I am so troubled about some things I found out about the community center where the inner city kids go for camp and after school programs ...but that is for another day...and as soon as I can catch up with this one family, I have to attack this from a different angle, involving the fantasy world of the Joe Lieberman's and the Chris Shays' who believe that they are fully caring for all the children of this state in a wonderful world of cotton candy clouds and candy cane lanes ...(cue the Sam Seder "world of your imagination" music....)

I do need a respite, but how can I look at the matter at hand without extrapolating this entire setup of a situation into what it is....The fix is in and from the very core of that rotten Supreme Court comes the conviction of those who hold themselves superior and above the rabble, (include women in that equation, along with the poor and people of color,) and so when any opportunity comes for a ray of hope against the body that would force those young girls and boys to resign themselves to another generation of hopelessness, I perk up...I'm hoping...and if that makes me an evil, negative, lefty, creep, then so be it...
But I challenge OReilly and his chit-chat board to do anything like what Ive been doing, actually get your hands dirty kids, and then set up a charity to continue this work.... and then to continue to agree with these smug social engineers that women don't deserve to have choice, that affirmative action isn't needed, and that enough time has long ago passed in order to make up for all the wrongs done to the minorities of this country. We need some balance back on the court, and if there aren't gonna be term limits then maybe a couple of them are gonna have to meet with natural disaster...
And what better place to seize than on your dock at your country place?...at least its damned beautiful there...enjoy it John...you've worked so hard...

If John Edwards isn't exactly what this country needs, I don't know what is. The very point of this whole story is that the returning army is largely made up of poor minorities, and the cards are already stacked against them. Getting out of the war is one thing, restoring diplomatic ties is another...but social services is THE thing....forcing the poor to play on a clearly uneven playing field while funds to education and services are clearly cut, and forcing anyone to decide about family planning with the help of anyone but their family and their doctor is just not fair and its not allowing everyone the same chance...because we know that the prep school kids have a huge boost up, and we know that rich kids who make mistakes get special treatment, be it private doctors, special lawyers, or extra educational help...not to mention those great oceanfront summer homes with docks....
Education, medical care, insurance, the American dream....what else?