- 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?
-
- 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.
-
- 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.
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