Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being
screwed do not "set them free" but instead further demoralize
them? Has such a demoralization happened in the United States?
Do some totalitarians actually want us to hear how we have been
screwed because they know that humiliating passivity in the face
of obvious oppression will demoralize us even further? What
forces have created a demoralized, passive, disCouraged U.S.
population? Can anything be done to turn this around?
Can people become so broken that truths of how they are being
screwed do not "set them free" but instead further demoralize
them?
YES. It is called the "abuse syndrome." How do abusive pimps,
spouses, bosses, corporations, and governments stay in control?
They shove lies, emotional and physical abuses, and injustices
in their victims' faces, and when victims are afraid to exit
from these relationships, they get weaker; and so the abuser
then makes their victims eat even more lies, abuses, and
injustices, resulting in victims even weaker as they remain in
these relationships.
Does the truth of their abuse set people free when they are deep
in these abuse syndromes? NO. For victims of the abuse syndrome,
the truth of their passive submission to humiliating oppression
is more than embarrassing -- it can feel shameful; and there is
nothing more painful than shame. And when one already feels
beaten down and demoralized, the likely response to the pain of
shame is not constructive action but more attempts to shut down
or divert oneself from this pain. It is not likely that the
truth of one's humiliating oppression is going to energize one
to constructive actions.
Has such a demoralization happened in the U.S.?
In the United States, 47 million people are without health
insurance and many millions more are underinsured or a job
layoff away from losing their coverage. But despite the current
sellout by their elected officials to the insurance industry,
there is no outpouring of millions of U.S. citizens on the
streets of Washington D.C. protesting this betrayal.
Polls show that the majority of Americans oppose U.S. wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the taxpayer bailout of the
financial industry, yet only a handful of U.S. citizens have
protested any of this.
Remember the 2000 U.S. presidential election? That's the one in
which Al Gore received 500,000 more votes than George W. Bush.
That's also the one that the Florida Supreme Court's order for a
recount of the disputed Florida vote was over-ruled by the U.S.
Supreme Court in a politicized 5-4 decision, of which dissenting
Justice John Paul Stevens remarked: "Although we may never know
with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this
year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is
perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as
an impartial guardian of the rule of law." Yet, even all this
provoked few demonstrators.
When people become broken, they cannot act on truths of
injustice. Furthermore, when people have become broken, more
truths about how they have been victimized can lead to shame
about how they have allowed it. And shame, like fear, is one
more psychological way we become even more broken.