Having finished my usual holiday calls to friends afar there seems to be a general theme. We are wondering if we’ve all become numb? Is there a general malaise infecting humanity? Or at least Americans. Do we all need a therapist? Or a great Mai Tai? Is it more than the orange elephant in the living room?
The theory started innocently enough. Why are all the clothes and fabrics for furniture in hues of grey, black, brown and crème? Where is the color? The life. Could those who decide these things be suffering unconsciously from the same malaise or might it just be corporate strategy to save money by only offering a limited selection and often a poorer quality of goods at higher prices? You’ve noticed the more for less we’ve been enduring for the last half a decade. Corporations blamed Covid and supply chains as our peanut butter cups shrank while the cost exploded but they’ve never recalibrated post pandemic. They just continue to rob us, waiting for us to normalize their greed. Breeding the manufactured consent. Speaking of corporate greed, and never condoning violence but curious how you felt when the public sided with the shooter of the United Healthcare CEO?
Our conversations continued something like this…
How is it few seem to care about their job and doing it well anymore? As if the A-team has retired without passing their values, expertise and ethics to the B and C-teams left holding the bag. I saw and felt this decline and rise of mediocrity on a recent vacation to my hometown of New Orleans. I blamed myself at first. I thought I was just romantically remembering the past as I looked through rose-colored glasses – but NO DAMN IT! It’s changed and not for the better!
And those people I’ve been angry with and labeled apolitical or neutral, who I felt were just irresponsible and leaving the work to others like me to fight for a better life, could it be they’ve just been let down so many times they can’t manage to try again and muster hope anymore? Maybe. For some. And the spiritual bypassers, maybe they do so because one more uncomfortable conversation might feel like it could be the death of them. We can all only take so much before we crack open, screaming into our pillow.
Do you walk in a store and see nothing that interests you? Does everything you eat taste bland? Does it feel as if there’s little to look forward to? Does it take too much juice for the squeeze? Are we all just waiting for the next shoe to drop while we put on happy faces for the holidays and hope for the best as we look for shreds of happiness. Are you having a hard time finding motivation to put forth the effort to make things happen. To care. Are you doing things because you should and because it’s expected rather than you want to?
Was it almost more than you could take to realize the friends you loved and thought you knew are actually haters and that truth just cut you too deep? Can you remember how you felt as you kept seeing the ignorance of people without a clue about what they don’t know? Shocking these were Americans. How did things get so bad? Perhaps seeing our polarized country living in two realities makes you afraid and you wonder how or if it will resolve in a healthy way. Or watching our media act like State TV in a third world dictatorship rather than publish the truth protecting the Fourth Estate is a gut punch.
Sure, many of us have been social justice warriors for a long time defending the rights of minorities, women, people choosing alternative lifestyles and all the rest. Of course we fought patriarchy and felt like the deck was stacked against us. But we had come to believe the arc of progress bends toward justice and we lived in a great country striving to make everyone equal under the law. Where we were protected by the justice system and anyone could achieve almost anything with effort and some luck. Unless of course you weren’t white. But do we still have those illusions?
There were steadfast guardrails, a status quo, though unequal it provided familiarity and some certainty. Now all bets seem off. With a demented, narcissistic and ignorant elderly golfer in the Pink House, not just the country, but our free speech, our safety net and the world seems at risk. Afterall, we saw in a decade how one man with unlimited money and enablers can infect politics and defeat the justice system of the United States of America, the country we grew up believing was the most powerful and capable on the planet. The Beacon on the Hill everyone aspired to be a part of. Now, however, we’ve seen the harsh reality of how being rich and white makes you immune from any accountability. (Our black and brown friends told us so.) You can have someone killed, maybe steal an election, defraud millions and there’s no accountability. Some might even say being rich and white enabled the death of truth and democracy, flawed though it was.
Is a decade of this all just too much for our human psyches to handle? Or have white Americans had it too good for too long compared to countries where freedom was never a reality. We aren’t accustomed to this sustained struggle and uncertainty. We, the masses haven’t learned to cope and find joy despite the adversity.
Did we use up our ability to feel? Do we only get so much for one lifetime? Are we all numb with little capacity to feel happiness, joy or excitement? Lots of questions. Not lots of answers.
Well, my little shred of happiness reared its head yesterday and came in the form of these little feline ornaments. It had been a long time since anything really appealed to me and made me smile. But when I saw these Merry Christmas Cheetahs something stirred within me – even inspired me to paint Medusa’s snakes. I have hope my capacity for beauty and to feel something is not completely dead.
BIO: Karen Tate is a thought leader, speaker, seven-times published author, podcaster and social justice activist, Karen is a Caring Economy Conversation leader and Power of Partnership presenter. She has a certification from Smith College in the Psychology of Political Activism: Women Changing the World and she can be seen in the award-winning docu-film, Femme: Women Healing the World. She has been named one of thirteen Most Influential Women in Goddess Spirituality. Her newest book is Normalizing Abuse: A Commentary on Our Pervasive Culture of Abuse. For more information: http://www.karentate.net
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My son recently moved to Spain, not exactly burning his bridges behind him, however, has no intention to return ever to the US. He was sick and tired of the things your speak about. The inequalities of our justice(?) system. Institutional racism. Our leaning towards autocracy. Corporate greed, etc., etc. Says he’s looking for peace–somewhere he can grow his own food and read. I just got back to the US from visiting him abroad. I suppose we all find beauty in various ways. I think he and I are both aching to feel and behold beauty. While there, I found a colorful dish (Asturian pottery) and purchased it. The piece of useful art stirred something in me (like your feline ornaments). Thanks for writing this.
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Thanks for your reply Esther. Your son has the right idea. If I were younger I might be trying to do the same. Escape the insanity. I so feel the need for a reset or vacation from all this yet as we listen to Trump respond to the horrific fires we see in Los Angeles we’re getting a taste of the insanity and retribution we’re in for. I pray the tarot readers and psychics are right that he won’t last – yet then there’s Vance and Project 2025.
Americans have lost all empathy. We’ve been stripped of our humanity by classism and predator capitalism. Neither of which we talk enough about.
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I really liked this post – you raise important questions that need answers…”Is a decade of this all just too much for our human psyches to handle? Or have white Americans had it too good for too long compared to countries where freedom was never a reality. We aren’t accustomed to this sustained struggle and uncertainty.”
Both the above are true. Some of us are on overload and haven’t checked out – and so so many are ridiculously spoiled and self centered – I live in ski country and am increasingly repulsed by the people moving here – too many rich million dollar houses while local people go hungry – the poison is everywhere.
I won’t touch what these recreationists call conservation – more woodland rape for fun.
I think some people are literally winking out – the happy ones are in pure denial as are the ‘savior’ strategies paired by some – pick one become a first bather a spiritually enlightened one — technology – get to the moon or beyond – climate change isn’t real – we didn’t choose power and greed after all – or a madman for president. Those of us who have to stay present for one reason or another are facing unprecedented suffering –
I don’t like what’s happening to me – my compassion is in short supply unless I turn to animals trees plants and fungi because ater all we brought this on ourselves – the warnings have been there – where have we been? Too busy maintaining the status quo.
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beauty is a survival strategy – without it we dies.
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I think we’ve been conditioned to accept things as they are, and as you said have become numb to so much. Too much. The political polarization gripping our country keeps growing and we are at a point where neither side wishes to engage with the other, and nothing will change for the better because of it. We need a hard reset, but how?
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As long as “free speech” can mean lies, distortion and propaganda instead of using the airwaves for the benefit of the people as it was supposed to be used for, I don’t have a clue. The left has no megaphone to compare to the right.
Why can’t I scream fire in a crowded theater and create panic yet “entertainment” organizations can spew information that creates chaos and panic that can over time destroy democracy? Read Thom Hartman. It goes back to Reagan, losing the Fairness Doctrine, Citizens United and all the rest that gave billionaires this stranglehold and people’s adoption of the idea greed is good.
I was listening to Heather Cox Richardson last night. It might just take one big tipping point to start moving the ship in another direction. We saw the response to the CEO shooting. Maybe the tip of the iceberg.
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the key is in the “rich white men” line toward the end. when a society allows a few men/families to have unlimited wealth, then governments mean nothing — they are owned. there are no checks and balances.. the common people either go along or not. Marie Long
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Bernie has been talking about those rich white men for quite sometime and the Dems shafted him. Remember when Bernie could fill a stadium in 24 hours on a tweet talking about this classism?
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Thanks so much for your article, greed is at an all time high and it has been for a couple of decades now. a friend of my named this phenomena decades ago, as more entitled kids thinking they don’t really have to work to get. I would chuckle when going into a store to be met with a young clerk on the phone looking at me like, what do you want, like don’t bother me, this is a real phenomena. I worked for a multi national company selling brand eyewear for over a decade, once frames eyewear was quality, not anymore, it is absolute garbage for big bucks. Corps robbing people is at an all time high and have you become aware of the surge in plastics used to make clothing. You can not make this stuff up. Have your noticed how people are charging people ridiculous rent prices, rental cottages are disgustingly price, everyone trying to make a buck off their brothers and sisters, it is so disgusting really. Yeah, what do we do, stop buying the crap, speak up about greedy landlords, renters ripping off their brothers and sister’s, don’t let them get away with it.
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I have a friend who said when that old show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous came on it would change life here. Maybe she was right. That and prosperity gospels.
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Hi Karen, lovely to connect with you and thank you for all the work you do. A woman, Rosa Koire left us with an amazing gift before crossing over, I think it is a must read for all of us now, she nailed what is being rolled our now and it has been for decades now without our awareness, most people anyhow. The book is called The Green Mask: UN Agenda 21, she laid it all out in this book and went around the world trying to wake people up to this before her passing, she was a real hero for humanity and our planet. Personally I do not believe that our planet is in danger, Gaia will just through us off, we all need to wake up to this agenda now and some people are. It is amazing how many cowards there are out there, that has been my experience and people had best wake up soon to what politicians at every level of government have really been up to, indeed we are the 99% and this we can change at the local level where we do have the power to change it. I am holding public meetings within every riding in Ottawa to stop our politicians at every level of government from turning Ottawa into their smart city. As I said everything “smart” is code for cabal. Rosa Koire laid all of this out for all of us in her book. My take away is that everyone needs this book in their hands now, the way to stop it is at the local level and she is correct. Spread the word, blessings.
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My beloved city of Ottawa, the capital city of Canada is becoming a fifteen minute-“smart city”, by the way everything code is code for the WEF, WHO and so on. When I talk to people about this, I get three reactions, they say really and do not want to do anything about it, say they can not do anything about it, just want to live in their bubble believing that shady politics/players are not going to affect them their life, or they laugh. What I have come to know is most people do not know what is going on politically and leave their life up to politicians-very dangerous move these days! Most people are to self centered actually help other people or the planet, leaving it up to other people to do it for them, they are cowards, or dutiful sons and daughters rolling up their sleeves and doing what they are told. Totalitarianism is on the rise and people say, oh well. Our politicians will take care of us, you can not make this up.
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I don’t even know what those words mean -WEF WHO – what about WOOF?
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Oh Karen, I hear you, sister. I hear your pain, exhaustion and anger. I hear your question of “How did it happen here?” I’m in the UK, but we follow what happens in America very closely and it’s on our news all the time, plus we now have Musk attacking our government constantly… I think that question is something we in Britain ask ourselves too. My answer would be that people have very short memories. I hear people complaining about what local councils don’t do and they forget that councils have had the funds cut year on year since the crash in 2008. They forget we’ve had 14 years of Tory government and they are ripe for ultra right wing parties to exploit them. I used to be angry about people’s lack of critical thinking but now I realise that they’re probably exhausted from working three jobs, zero hours contracts, the high hike in energy prices. etc.
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Thank you for your perspective and insights. Yes, all of this has been an attack on our well being and low information voters are killing us.
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