PTSD Nation?

Have we given up on a central goal we sought to achieve more than two centuries ago?

- Robert Reich

I was born just after the end of World War II, and the first half of the 20th century marked a particularly difficult, violent era.

I was born just after the end of World War II, and the first half of the 20th century marked a particularly difficult, violent era.

But the 21st century so far has been, well, one trauma after another.

It started with 9/11, followed by the grim wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then came the Wall Street crisis of 2008 and the subsequent Great Recession. The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 and its own economic crisis. The attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Then, beginning in 2024, Trump’s full-scale attack on democratic institutions, followed by his war on Iran, and soaring prices. Soon to come: Artificial Intelligence invading all aspects of our lives.

At the same time, we’ve been experiencing widening inequalities of income, wealth, and opportunity, along with a growing climate crisis.

When a nation’s people experience these sorts of stresses, they begin expecting stress. They gird themselves for the next crisis. They shut down their capacity to be shocked or appalled.