Cultural Implosion
About 15 years ago I saw a magazine article that got my attention. I thought it was interesting at the time. It was speaking of the reactions of individuals who experience extreme emotional trauma. I have since lost that magazine. There was one symptom in particular that made me take notice: Self-Blame.
About the same time that I saw that article, several terrorist incidents occurred that shocked and rocked the American people. At the time, these were seen as individual events that that nothing to do with each other. While Americans everywhere were shaken, for most of us, we were not truly frightened that this would continue or that it could happen to us, right where we live and work.
It wasn't until the events of 9/11/2001 that the American people were forced to realize that many of the terrorist events that had been happening on American soil, and around the world, were being carefully orchestrated by organized terrorist groups in the middle eastern countries. Even more recently, we have come to understand that some of the terrorists involved were born here and lived most, or all, of their lives right here in the United States.
In the 1990's life went on as before, even after the terrorist attacks. We all knew that individual nut-cases were out there, somewhere, but surely most of us were safe, right? We didn't think of terrorism as organized.
The events as they happened are not the point of my post. Terrorism isn't either. More to the point, it's about the self-blame, also known as survivor's guilt or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Most of the time, survivor's guilt is seen in terms of how it affects individuals. However it can affect society as a whole as well.
I decided to do some research on the subject and found an article titled "Effects of Traumatic Experiences" written by Eve B. Carlson, PhD and Josef Ruzek, PhD for the website AtHealth.com. This is part of what I found:
Self-blame, guilt, and shame can arise when PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) symptoms make it hard to fulfill current responsibilities. They can also occur when people fall into the common trap of second-guessing what they did or didn't do at the time of a trauma. Many people, in trying to make sense of their experience, blame themselves.
It continues later in the article with:
Sometimes, because of how they behaved at the time of the trauma, survivors feel that they are bad, worthless, stupid, incompetent, evil, etc.
I have been watching this happen to American society as a whole. It saddens me to no end.
I am not speaking about each individual blaming himself, but rather that the American people are looking to find our own culture to blame. I find this most apparent in terms of religious and political backlash.
Specifically what comes to mind is the religious backlash and laws and behavior expected in the name of patriotism. For the past 10 years there has been a religious upheaval in American Society.
Please don't misunderstand. Religious upheaval is not in itself a bad thing. People should look closer at what they believe. There should be a continual search for a closer relationship with whatever higher power you follow. There should be a continual spiritual renewal and spiritual connection. And there's nothing wrong with patriotism. As a matter of fact, it's needed. When a society suffers a collective sense of trauma and powerlessness, patriotism is a great source of regaining a sense of connectedness and collective power.
But there is such a thing as going too far. When you are cold and you need warmth, you start a fire in the fireplace, or turn on or turn up the thermostat. You don't set fire to the whole house! And that is what we, Americans, are doing.
In the 1400's pilgrims came and settled in this continent basically because they had beliefs that were not shared by the others citizens of their native counties. They settled in communities that dotted the eastern coastline, each religious community keeping to itself in order to maintain their religious autonomy. Just about each town had it's own national origins and religious beliefs. Over time, more settlers came, bringing with them more diverse religious beliefs and backgrounds. As more settlers came, they found a need to peacefully co-exist with the peoples of other backgrounds and communities. And they came under the unifying rule of England.
In 1776, the first congress of the United States declared independence from England. They instituted rules in the Constitution governing tolerance for other religious beliefs or lack thereof. They found need to separate governance from religious dogma. This was ostensibly to allow all people to not only feel equal to all others but to actually treat all people with fairness and dignity. The founders of the United States saw the value of multiple points of view, of contributions from all walks of life, and realized that all people needed inclusion in the laws, the courts, and the government. They realized that everyone benefits from that inclusion not only for themselves but for each other.
That's not to say that the laws have always been fair, just, kind, or tolerant. The United States has a long history of including Christian religious beliefs in it's laws, at both the federal and state levels. It also has a long history of discrimination in its laws aimed at non-Christian religious groups in its laws. However, over time, as lawsuits have been filed against various laws and statutes, laws have changed becoming more tolerant.
Indeed, there has always been a sort of animosity held by atheists against the existence of any religion, and a corresponding animosity by most religious Americans against the lack of religious beliefs by atheists. Atheists have always wanted to be treated equally and fairly, and Christians in particular have always wanted to maintain the teaching of Christianity in the schools, and keep a Christian flavor to the laws and judgments in courts.
After the events of 9-11-2001 though, there began a backward slide. And America tied it's predisposition to Christianity with patriotism. Suddenly, it was seen as unpatriotic to be anything other than Christian. And suddenly, everything unethical (unethical in the eyes of lawmakers) became unpatriotic.
Ever since 9-11-2001, there has been a boom in religious fervor, particularly Christian fervor. American Christians are increasingly willing to blame all things non-Christian for the attacks happening. I see this over and over again in various places, from the pulpits of Christian leaders who thump their bibles and claim that we are bringing our problems on ourselves because we are doing this or that, whatever the preacher wants to point toward. I saw it evidenced by a recent interview CNN conducted with Victoria Jackson, an actress well known for her portrayals on Saturday Night Live, when she claimed that according to the verses she mentioned, we are not going to receive God's blessings because of the homosexuality of some teenagers being shown on television. I've heard the same arguments by anti-abortionists who claim that God is gonna get us because America allows abortion.
I saw this in the church I used to attend. They were fanatical about it. If there was anything that happened to you, God was punishing you for it. My daughter was born with a deformed foot, therefore I must have sinned that God was punishing my daughter for my behavior.
This is not unique to the United States. I've watched this same phenomenon in the middle east as well. Israel and the Arab countries have been at war for a very long time. And the Arabs have been at war with each other and internally and with other non-Arab countries for even longer. It is not an accident that the religion of the majority of the people in the middle east has taken a fanatical surge. They have a much longer history with this survivor guilt, this PTSD. They culturally imploded long ago and continue even now as I write.
There has, in the past 10 years, been a surge of new laws aimed at invalidating so much of the constitution in favor of re-instituting Christianity as the religion to be taught in schools, and demonizing students who don't conform to Christianity, and inserting various levels of Christian fanaticism back into the laws that have previously been struck down in courts. And the level of fanaticism is frightening.
Here is an excerpt from the February 23, 2011 issue of Mother Jones magazine in an article titled "Georgia Law Could Give Death Penalty for Miscarriages" written by Jen Phillips.
It's only February, but this year has been a tough one for women's health and reproductive rights. There's a new bill on the block that may have reached the apex (I hope) of woman-hating craziness. Georgia State Rep. Bobby Franklin — who last year proposed making rape and domestic violence "victims" into "accusers" — has introduced a 10-page bill that would criminalize miscarriages and make abortion in Georgia completely illegal. Both miscarriages and abortions would be potentially punishable by death: any "prenatal murder" in the words of the bill, including "human involvement"in a miscarriage, would be a felony and carry a penalty of life in prison or death. Basically, it's everything an "pro-life" activist could want aside from making all women who've had abortions wear big red "A"s on their chests.
I doubt that a bill that makes a legal medical procedure liable for the death penalty will pass. The bill, however, shows an astonishing lack of concern for women's health and well-being. Under Rep. Franklin's bill, HB 1, women who miscarry could become felons if they cannot prove that there was "no human involvement whatsoever in the causation" of their miscarriage. There is no clarification of what "human involvement" means, and this is hugely problematic as medical doctors do not know exactly what causes miscarriages. Miscarriages are estimated to terminate up to a quarter of all pregnancies and the Mayo Clinic says that "the actual number is probably much higher because many miscarriages occur so early in pregnancy that a woman doesn't even know she's pregnant. Most miscarriages occur because the fetus isn't developing normally."
Holding women criminally liable for a totally natural, common biological process is cruel and non-sensical. Even more ridiculous, the bill holds women responsible for protecting their fetuses from "the moment of conception," despite the fact that pregnancy tests aren't accurate until at least 3 weeks after conception. Unless Franklin (who is not a health professional) invents a revolutionary intrauterine conception alarm system, it's unclear how exactly the state of Georgia would enforce that rule other than holding all possibly-pregnant women under lock and key.
Parents of children in public schools are more and more demanding that bibles be handed out in public schools, as if just owning a bible will make someone a better person! I know they're presuming that the children will read the bible. In all honesty, I can read a cookbook. That won't by itself make me a better cook. I can read a book on Chemistry. That doesn't mean I understand what it says. In my estimation, there are many Christians out there, who, claiming to have read their bibles, still have no comprehension of true Christianity. Their behavior toward their non-Christian citizens betray them.
Instead of upholding each other in this country and helping each other heal from the attacks on us, we have been tearing each other down. We are, as Americans who have suffered several acts of terrorism in common, culturally imploding.
This obsession with punishment from God is a function of fear. And it's a fear that began with an incredible act of aggression from a foreign land. As a people we need to get over that fear, we need to heal from that fear. We need to see our fellow Americans who are not of the same faith as ourselves as being in the same position as ourselves. We need to value their right to believe as they do, practice as they do, live their lives as they do and give them the same fairness, equality and dignity we want for ourselves.
If we do not stop and take a good long hard look at what we are doing with our laws, our expectations, our schools, our courts, our government and our behavior, and turn our efforts around to include those with different beliefs and values, we are headed down the same road as the middle eastern countries. We are fast becoming the same religious vigilantes that we hate so much about them. The only difference will be which religion we dogmatically cram down their throats. And look at how their least powerful citizens suffer. Is that what we really want here?
Have we, as a society, learned nothing from the wisdom of the men and women to fought to start this country, and gave us the freedoms we have? Are we so willing to throw away their sacrifices? Does the constitution mean nothing? Throwing away their sacrifices and our constitutional protections will not make us any safer. It only serves to make us meaner and less "us".
March 28, 2011
@ 4:36 p.m. CST
Updated March 28, 2011 @ 10:01 p.m. CST
