America the Traumatized: How 13 Events of the Decade Made Us the PTSD Nation

[Louisiana1976]

It's been one helluva decade, even though we've reached the end without knowing what to call it. Some have tried "the aughts," others the "double-Os." I'm content to simply call it over. To mark its location in the great march of history, I've taken to calling it the millennial decade, after the great numerological transition it heralded. Yet for describing its character, nothing comes closer than the Decade of Trauma -- American trauma, that is.

Here in the home of the brave, we've endured a decade that shattered nearly every notion of what it meant to be an American, whether you live on the left or the right. And so we shout. Or hide. Or startle too easily.

In America today, it seems we all have a touch of post-traumatic stress disorder, as evidenced by our increasingly vitriolic political environment, where reality is denied and histrionics run riot. Anger, we're told, is the natural reaction to trauma; in people with PTSD, the anger is out of control. By that measure, the millennial decade has brought us 10 years of PTSD politics -- with no end in sight.

snip

http://www.alternet.org/politics/144791/america_the_traumatized%3A_how_13_events_of_the_decade_made_us_the_ptsd_nation/?page=entire

[That Is Quite Enough]

1. Ooh, thanks for the link. Reading it over now.

[thunder rising]

2. Actually I look at the decade as positive. We got back to zero in a year after a decade of negative

The conservatives (criminals) have been exposed and marginalized. And, it looks like although it hurt bad, we're gonna recover.

So, I'm in for one more year.

[timeforpeace]

3. Cool, victim status. It's not just for victims anymore.