I don't know what to believe anymore

[blues90]

When I look at all the issues and listen to liberal radio and see all the opinions on the tv and of course there is the new house in Jan . Above all is this death and destruction in Iraq whether to pull out or not and how it can be done , then I hear bush rambling his opinion .

Add to this the NPAC freaks and all the talk about the 2008 elections which to me is all insane speculation and a game of politics only .

My head begins to spin because I can't sort through all this info without remaining hopeless and insecure in my own very small life on this planet of complete madness .

It is complete madness , all the suffer in the USA alone is quite bad enough , even though I never voted for the repug freaks killing the globe and I can't control the corporations taking all the jobs away still I feel guilty for what the USA has allowed to be done .

I think about that poor fellow who set himself on fire and was ignored as if it was for nothing , I do however understand why he did it .

Think about this world we live in or try to live in , it is all upside down and terrifying .

I just don't know how anyone can continue through life without feeling intense guilt on a daily basis or how one can remain even remotely balanced , I certainly can't .

If this is a sign of my own personal weakness then so be it , I was much stronger before 6 years of this horror but I find I cannot find much hope and see no way to come close to repairing all the damage that has been done . This is my guilt that I try to live with .

[warrior1]

1. You just need a break

that's all

[demnan]

2. I think we all feel like that

The only thing that helps is to actively participate in a small way. Work on an election campaign, join in a protest march, write a letter to the editor or to your Congressman.

[Bonobo]

3. You're a bug on a ball that's spinning around.

Bugs will die, ball will be fine. Don't worry so much.

[NMDemDist2]

4. to quote a movie I saw last night

"what you can't fix, you just have to stand"

so figure out what you *YOU* can change in your hometown and get to work a few hours a month

feed the hungry
clean up the environment (that includes trash on the side of the road)
help battered women
change your light bulbs out for CFLs then get your neighbors to do it, get your power company give out coupons to defray the costs
go to your city council/county commission meeting
join your local Democratic Party (if there isn't one, start one)


it's surprising how just taking some action helps you feel better. even if you can't change it, you can at least look yourself in the mirror and know you didn't stand idly by

[jilln]

10. Brokeback Mountain?

[NMDemDist2]

11. yes n/t

[bryant69]

5. I get through it be being really shallow

But yeah, you have to cultivate your own garden - not focus on how messed up the world is.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. I know - but then last week we took a week at the Outer Banks -

no computer, no cell phone - just long walks, beautiful sunsets, a few good bottles of wine and beer, our dogs - one could say it is escapism, burying our heads in the sand - but it was restorative, made us aware of how much we have (each other!) - how beautiful, powerful, incredible the natural world that surrounds us is....feeling much better about things now. It is important to unplug from it all now and then.

[angry_chuck]

7. check this book out

I know this is GD, not the book forum, but look at Coercion - By Rushkoff

"We respond automatically, unconsciously, and often toward our own further disempowerment. The less we are satisfied by our decisions, the more easily manipulated we become." - Rushkoff

It is a good read, very illuminating.

[aquart]

8. It's time for the talk.

You can only do what you can do. When you are strong, you should always do as much as you can, because there will be days when you are weak, and others will have to do it for you.

But trying to do more than you can do saps your strength, makes you useless. You will NEVER be able to do everything that needs to be done. There will always be terrible suffering somewhere that you cannot do a single thing about. Acknowledge that. YOU DO WHAT YOU CAN. On the days you can't, someone else must. Allow them that.

Now do whatever you need to do to regain your strength.

[madmusic]

9. We could not be here without the Democrats condoning it...

It is overwhelming and I had no idea what was going on 10 years ago or before BushCo took power. Things were well underway before that, when the Rethugs took the Congress in '94.

I'm continually shocked at discovering everything they accomplished since then and was so ignorant of what was really going on.

It all seems so hopeless.

But the last time something like it happened was in the Progressive Era, and what BushCo has done is nothing compared to the liberties lost during and in the name of the Great War. That same "worship the state" permeated everything, as it does now. Only the state can solve our problems, and both the Left and Right were willing to trade a little sliver of liberty for their cause. "I'll give you the 1st if you give me the 5th." Protesting the war landed many in prison for a long time back then. Then, as now, the was a real battle between corporate power and reform. Corporations won that one.

There was eventually a backlash and then came the Great Depression, and all the self-righteous who thought they were invincible suddenly found they were really human beings after all, and if they were, maybe others were too.

How do I keep sane? By reminding myself that the pendulum swings, will always swing. There are always some down in the pit who are cut by the swing of the pendulum. It's a horror story. But like all horror stories, there is an end.

This is only a test of the emergency broadcast system. It too will end.