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HAPPIER
ABROAD Why
You
Can Have A Better Life and Love Beyond
Studies
that show
"It is no measure of health
to be
well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
The following goes to show how the myth of having more wealth and goods
does
not lead to happiness, contentment, or wholeness after all, but instead
can
lead to mental illness, health problems, and dysfunctional/deviant
behavior,
especially in a prudish, repressed, puritanical society like ours.
Highest
prison population in the world
First,
http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/aaprisonpop.htm
"
From Robert Longley,
Your Guide to U.S. Gov Info /
Resources.
FREE Newsletter. Sign
Up Now!
1 in 142 US residents now in prison
By midyear 2002,
Of the 1,200,203 state prisoners, 3,055 were younger than 18 years old.
In
addition, adult jails held 7,248 inmates under 18."
Highest
incidence of rape
We also have
the highest incident of rape in the
world. One wonders why we have such high rates of sexual deviancy
when
the rest of the world doesn't. Could it be that our values are
too
Puritanical, while our media culture constantly arouses us with images
and the
fantasy of a promiscuous lifestyle?
Whereas in the more free spirited countries, men are allowed to
be men,
and social relationships are more harmonious?
http://www.paralumun.com/issuesrapestats.htm
"AMERICAN RAPE STATISTICS
Somewhere in
Higher
homicide rates than other industrialized nations
Here we have
homicide and violent crime rates in the
http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/measures/ViolentC.htm
"Homicide
rates in the
Jeremy Rifkin
compares rates of homicide and
suicide in the
"Living in
a safe
environment is also one of the hallmarks of a good society. We
have come
to believe that the more affluent a society becomes, the more peaceful
it is
likely to be. If GDP is the standard, then the
Between
1997 and 1999,
the average rate of homicides per 100,000 people in the EU was
1.7. The
It's not
surprising that
the
Footnotes:
84. Graff,
James. "Gunning for It." Time
85. "Rates
of
Homicide, Suicide, and Firearm-related Death Among
Children - 26 Industrialized Countries." Morbidity and Morality Weekly Report. Vol. 46,
No. 5.
86.
Barclay, Gordon, and
Cynthia Tavares. "International Comparison of
Criminal
Justice Statistics 2000."
87.
Barclay, Gordon, and
Cynthia Tavares. "International Comparisons Of
Criminal
Justice Statistics 2000."
In the same
book, Mr. Rifkin accounts for our high
homicide/violence rates by revealing that a growing number of Americans
actually believe that it is acceptable to use violence as a means to
achieve
your goals:
Page 31 -
32:
“Canadians
and Americans
were asked if “it is acceptable to use violence to get what you
want.” In 1992,
9 percent of Canadians and only 10 percent of Americans said using
violence to
get what you want was acceptable. (62) By 1996, however, 18 percent of
Americans felt that it was all right to use violence to get what you
want,
while still only 9 percent of Canadians thought the same way. (63) In
2000, the
gap between Canadians and Americans had widened even more. Twelve
percent of
Canadians thoughts violence was justified to get what they wanted,
while 24
percent of Americans felt the same way. (64) That’s nearly one
out of four
Americans believing that using violence to get what they want is
acceptable.
Michael Adams, who heads up the polling organization Environics,
concluded that “Americans are prepared to put a lot more on the
line than
Canadians to achieve their version of the American Dream,”
including committing acts of violence, if necessary. (65)”
Footnotes:
62. Adams,
Michael. Fire and Ice: The
63. Ibid.
64. Ibid.
65. Ibid.
Increase
in wealth failed to increase happiness for
Americans
This survey
found that having more did not equal more happiness
for Americans.
http://www.commondreams.org/scriptfiles/views03/1229-09.htm
"The
survey, which has studied happiness since 1945, finds it has not
increased in
Poorer
countries having happier people than
And if the
American myth that having more = being happier were
true, then how could
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3157570.stm
"
Highest
rates of mental illness in the world
And not
surprisingly, mental illness in the industrialized
world was found to be the highest in the
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5111202/
"Mental
illnesses
including anxiety disorders and depression are common and under-treated
in many
developed and developing countries, with the highest rate found in the
According to
a new study, at least half of Americans are
reportedly struggling with mental illness or have been in therapy:
http://nysun.com/editorials/are-we-really-ill?fark
”Are We Really That
By CHRISTOPHER LANE | March 26, 2008
CHICAGO - America has reached a point where
almost half
its population is described as being in some way mentally ill, and
nearly a
quarter of its citizens - 67.5 million - have taken
antidepressants.”
One poster on
my Forum it this way:
https://www.happierabroad.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3823
“I
think this is a result of the social isolation in America and a result
of America's culture which demands that people always look fake happy
even if
they're not.
In other cultures, just
talking to neighbors,
friends, or relatives about their feelings is probably enough
"therapy" for most people. If people no longer have opportunities to
interact with others in a meaningful way, they have no choice but to
talk to
psychologists instead.”
Studies
show loneliness and isolation to be national epidemics in
Not
surprisingly, given Americans’ isolation mentality, dislike of
other
people, and “no talking to strangers unless its
business-related” social rule,
America has a major loneliness epidemic, probably the worst in the
world. It’s
so bad that even the mainstream media cannot deny it, as these news
reports
below reveal. Therefore, if you
think that being lonely in America is only a problem for misfits and
losers,
think again. I guess in order to live in America, you have to love
loneliness. What
a weird and unnatural social environment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/weekinreview/02fountain.html
The Lonely American Just Got a Bit Lonelier
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: July 2, 2006
FOR as long as humans have gathered in groups, it seems, some people
have been
left on the outside looking in. In postwar America in particular, the idea that loneliness
pervades a
portion of society has been a near-constant. Only the descriptions have
changed: the "lonely crowd" alienation of the 1950's; the grim
career-driven angst of the 70's and 80's; the "Bowling Alone"
collapse of social connections of the 90's.
There is a new installment in the annals of loneliness. Americans are
not only
lacking in bowling partners, now they're lacking in people to tell
their
deepest, darkest secrets. They've hunkered down even more, their inner
circle
often contracting until it includes only family, only a spouse or, at
worst, no
one.
And that is something the Internet may help ease, but is unlikely to cure.
A recent study by sociologists at Duke and the University of Arizona
found
that, on average, most adults only have two people they can talk to
about the
most important subjects in their lives — serious health problems,
for example,
or issues like who will care for their children should they die. And
about
one-quarter have no close confidants at all.
"The kinds of connections we studied are the kinds of people you call
on
for social support, for real concrete help when you need it," said Lynn
Smith-Lovin, a sociologist at Duke and an author of the study, which
analyzed
responses in interviews that mirrored a survey from 1985. "These are
the
tightest inner circle."
The study "should provide a wake-up call to our society," said Bill
Maier, a vice president and psychologist in residence with Focus on the
Family,
the evangelical Christian group. "We're missing out on deep, meaningful
interpersonal relationships."
Yet within the analysis there was at least a suggestion of hope.
"The one type of relationship that actually went up was talking over
personally important things with your spouse," Dr. Smith-Lovin said.
Like "Bowling Alone," the essay and, later, book by Robert D. Putnam,
a public policy professor a Harvard, the Duke study suggested that a
weakening
of community connections is in part responsible for increasing social
isolation. More people are working and commuting longer hours and have
little
time for the kinds of external social activities that could lead to
deeper
relationships.
So the closest ties
increasingly are limited to family members, in particular to spouses.
"That's probably a result of the fact that men's and women's lives are
more structurally similar now than in 1985," Dr. Smith-Lovin said. It's
more likely that both spouses are working at jobs that are important to
them,
and men are more involved around the house. "Spouses literally have
more
to talk about," she said.
Dr. Maier, for one, sees that as cause for at least some optimism in a
society
whose fast pace generally bodes badly for family life. "To hear that
people are investing more in their nuclear family is a positive thing,"
he
said.
The Internet is
also cause for
some optimism, because it has made it easier to maintain ties among
family
members who have become scattered. Those ties inevitably developed over
long-term, face-to-face contact, but e-mail can help keep them strong.
"E-mail really does help maintain your social networks," said John
Horrigan, associate director of the Pew Internet and American Life
Project.
Recent Pew surveys, he said, found that "when you contact family by
e-mail, you share important and serious things."
Still, Dr. Smith-Lovin said, any optimism must be tempered. For one
thing,
having only one confidant, even if that confidant is a spouse, leaves a
person
extremely vulnerable if the spouse dies or the marriage disintegrates.
And in the end, she and others pointed out, e-mail or instant messaging
is no
substitute for face-to-face contact. "E-mailing somebody far way is not
the same as them going to pick up your child at daycare or bringing you
chicken soup," she
said.
Dr. Putnam said the new study reinforced much of what he had reported
in
"Bowling Alone," which had been criticized by some academics as a
faulty analysis that ignored other social and economic trends. And even
if the
new study points to a rise in spouses as confidants, that is not
especially
cause to rejoice, he said. "It's like with global warming, if we learn that temperatures are going to
rise slightly less than we
thought," he said. "It's still a problem."
"Sure, you might say, we've still got our wives or husbands or
mothers," he said. "That's true. But gosh, the number of friends you
have is a strong predictor of how long you live."
The impact goes beyond the individual, as well. "There are effects on
my
neighbors of my not knowing them," he said. For one thing, "If I
don't know them well and they don't know me, that has a demonstrable
effect on
the crime rate."
Dr. Horrigan said there was anecdotal evidence that some members of a
community
use e-mail and the Internet "to keep up with people very close by."
The Internet can help expand social networks, although the ties it
creates are
not as strong as those the Duke researchers are concerned with. Yet
they can be
useful.
His group's research has shown that the Internet is increasingly being
used
during life's "major moments"
— to gather information or advice when making a big financial
investment,
deciding where to live, or choosing a college for a child. The research
has
shown that "people were more likely to get help through their social
network" for those kinds of decisions.
Still, Dr. Putnam said, "The real interesting future is how can we use
the
Net to strengthen and deepen relationships that we have offline."
Another
study on social isolation reported in
the Washington Post confirms this as well:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR2006062201763_pf.html
Social Isolation Growing in
The Number of People Who Say They Have No One to Confide In Has Risen
By Shankar
Vedantam
Americans
are far
more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a
sharply
growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide,
according to a comprehensive new evaluation of the decline of social
ties in
the
A quarter
of Americans
say they have no one with whom they can discuss personal troubles, more
than
double the number who were similarly isolated in 1985. Overall, the
number of
people Americans have in their closest circle of confidants has dropped
from
around three to about two.
The
comprehensive new
study paints a sobering picture of an increasingly fragmented America,
where
intimate social ties -- once seen as an integral part of daily life and
associated with a host of psychological and civic benefits -- are
shrinking or
nonexistent. In bad times, far more people appear to suffer alone.
"That
image of
people on roofs after Katrina resonates with me, because those people
did not
know someone with a car," said Lynn Smith-Lovin, a
If close
social
relationships support people in the same way that beams hold up
buildings, more
and more Americans appear to be dependent on a single beam.
Compared
with 1985,
nearly 50 percent more people in 2004 reported that their spouse is the
only
person they can confide in. But if people face trouble in that
relationship, or
if a spouse falls sick, that means these people have no one to turn to
for
help, Smith-Lovin said.
"We know
these
close ties are what people depend on in bad times," she said. "We're
not saying people are completely isolated. They may have 600 friends on
. [a
popular networking Web site] and e-mail 25 people a day, but they are
not discussing
matters that are personally important."
The new
research is
based on a high-quality random survey of nearly 1,500 Americans.
Telephone
surveys miss people who are not home, but the General Social Survey,
funded by
the National Science Foundation, has a high response rate and conducts
detailed
face-to-face interviews, in which respondents are pressed to confirm
they mean
what they say.
Whereas
nearly
three-quarters of people in 1985 reported they had a friend in whom
they could
confide, only half in 2004 said they could count on such support. The
number of
people who said they counted a neighbor as a confidant dropped by more
than
half, from about 19 percent to about 8 percent.
The
results, being
published today in the American Sociological Review, took researchers
by
surprise because they had not expected to see such a steep decline in
close
social ties.
Smith-Lovin
said
increased professional responsibilities, including working two or more
jobs to
make ends meet, and long commutes leave many people too exhausted to
seek
social -- as well as family -- connections: "Maybe sitting around
watching
'Desperate Housewives' . . . is what counts for family interaction."
Robert D.
Putnam, a
professor of public policy at Harvard and the author of "Bowling
Alone," a book about increasing social isolation in the
"For most
of the
20th century, Americans were becoming more connected with family and
friends,
and there was more giving of blood and money, and all of those trend
lines turn
sharply in the middle '60s and have gone in the other direction ever
since," he said.
Americans
go on 60
percent fewer picnics today and families eat dinner together 40 percent
less often
compared with 1965, he said. They are less likely to meet at clubs or
go
bowling in groups. Putnam has estimated that every 10-minute increase
in
commutes makes it 10 percent less likely that people will establish and
maintain close social ties.
Television
is a big
part of the problem, he contends. Whereas 5 percent of
But
Wellman
praised the
quality of the new study and said its results are surprising, but he
said it
does not address how core ties change in the context of other
relationships.
"I don't
see
this as the end of the world but part of a larger puzzle," he said.
"My guess is people only have so much energy, and right now they are
switching around a number of networks. . . . We are getting a division
of labor
in relationships. Some people give emotional aid, some people give
financial
aid."
Putnam and
Smith-Lovin
said Americans may be well advised to consciously build more
relationships. But
they also said social institutions and social-policy makers need to pay
more
attention.
"The
current
structure of workplace regulations assumes everyone works from 9 to 5,
five
days a week," Putnam said. "If we gave people much more flexibility
in their work life, they would use that time to spend more time with
their
aging mom or best friend."
Another
report and study in Live Science finds a link between
loneliness and health problems:
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/060331_loneliness.html
“In a new
Lonely people have blood pressure readings as much as 30 points higher
than
non-lonely people, said the study leaders Louise Hawkley and
Christopher Masi.
Blood pressure differences between lonely and non-lonely people were
smallest
at age 50 and greatest among the oldest people tested.
Richard Suzman of the National Institute on Aging, which funded this
research,
said he was "surprised by the magnitude of the relationship between
loneliness and hypertension in this well-controlled, cross-sectional
study."
Nothing worse
The researchers separated loneliness out from depression, age, race,
gender,
weight, alcohol consumption, smoking, blood pressure medications,
hostility,
stress, social support and other factors.
Also, loneliness does eat at you. The morbid health effect of
loneliness
accumulates gradually and faster as you get older, the study found.
Loneliness
was worse for blood pressure than any other psychological or social
factor the
researchers studied.
Weight loss and physical exercise reduce blood pressure by the same
amount that
loneliness increases it. Hawkley said this finding especially surprised
her.
"It's comparable to the effects you see for the health benefits that
are
so often advocated such as exercise [to] keep your blood pressure under
control," Hawkley told LiveScience.
Who is lonely
About one in five Americans is lonely, a
gnawing emotional state that is a patchwork of feeling unhappy,
stressed out,
friendless and hostile.
The main psychological difference between lonely and non-lonely people
is that
the former perceive stressful circumstances as threatening rather than
challenging and cope passively and withdraw from stress rather than
trying to
solve the problem, said study co-author John T. Cacioppo.
Lonely people who are middle-aged and older tend to also have problems
with
alcoholism, depression, weak immune system responses to illness,
impaired sleep
and suicide.
Some psychologists think that associations between loneliness and
health or
physiology are just part of a generic stress response, but this new
research
suggests loneliness has a unique impact.”
However,
some think even the “1 in 5” stat is an understatement:
“Only 1 in 5? … Winston,
you and I both know this survey is on the conservative side. People who
say
they aren't lonely have simply (I believe) mal-adapted to being lonely.
No one
here really communicates much besides hostility or freakish over
blandishness.”
Biggest
obesity crisis in the history of the world
And of
course, no one can deny the obesity problem in
http://www.mercola.com/2004/jul/3/obesity_rates.htm
"In one
government
report of 4,000 adults and an equal number of children, the number of
overweight adults for 2001-02 had risen to 65.7 percent versus 64.5
percent in
a similar study of adults in 2000-01. The level of obesity in adults
edged
upward from 30.5 percent to 30.6 percent. The number of adults who were
labeled
extremely obese grew slightly from 4.7 percent to 5.1 percent."
Some reasons
given to me as to why Americans are the most
overweight in the world are: 1) too much
time spent in cars and homes rather than walking/public transportation,
2) lack
of exercise due to laziness and too much work, 3) too much sugar,
processed
bleached white flour, preservatives and grease in their mainstream
foods (none
of which are good for you), 4) overly large meal portions, especially
at
dinner, even in restaurants, 5) focus on dinner being the main and
largest meal
of the day rather than lunch, which throws your system off balance and
increases weight gain. (many monks don't
even eat dinner
to maximize their spirituality) Ideally, dinner should be the smallest
meal of
the day and breakfast the biggest, but
Americans do
the opposite.
The
most unhealthy and sick population among industrialized nations
Quite sadly, it has been known for a long time that the American
population is
the most unhealthy and sick among the industrialized nations. In
fact, a
study comparing middle aged whites in the
”Study Shows Americans Sicker Than English
By CARLA K. JOHNSON and MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press Writers
Tue May 2, 10:47 PM ET
CHICAGO - White, middle-aged Americans — even those who are rich
— are far less
healthy than their peers in England, according to stunning newresearch
that erases misconceptions and has experts scratching their heads.
Americans had higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, strokes, lung
disease
and cancer — findings that held true no matter what income or
education level.
Those dismal results are despite the fact that
"Everybody should be
discussing
it: Why isn't the richest country in the world the healthiest country
in the
world?" asks study co-author Dr. Michael Marmot, an epidemiologist at
University College London in
The study, based on
government statistics
in both countries, adds context to the already-known fact that the
The
Even experts familiar
with the
weaknesses in the
"I knew we were less
healthy,
but I didn't know the magnitude of the disparities," said Gerard
Anderson,
an expert in chronic disease and international health at
Just why the
Even the
…………………………………..
Americans reported twice
the rate of
diabetes compared to the English, 12.5 percent versus 6 percent. For
high blood
pressure, it was 42 percent for Americans versus 34 percent for the
English;
cancer showed up in 9.5 percent of Americans compared to 5.5 percent of
the
English.
The upper crust in both
countries
was healthier than middle-class and low-income people in the same
country. But richer Americans' health status resembled
the health of the low-income English.
"It's something of a
mystery," said Richard Suzman of the
Health experts have known
the U.S. population is less healthy than that
of other industrialized nations, according to several
important measurements, including
life expectancy. The
The study was also reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA):
“Results The US population in late
middle age is less healthy
than the equivalent British population for diabetes, hypertension,
heart
disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, lung disease, and
cancer.
Within each country, there exists a pronounced negative socioeconomic
status (SES) gradient with self-reported disease so that
health
disparities are largest at the bottom of the education or
income
variants of the SES hierarchy. This conclusion is generally
robust
to control for a standard set of behavioral risk factors,
including
smoking, overweight, obesity, and alcohol drinking, which
explain
very little of these health differences. These differences
between
countries or across SES groups within each country are not
due to
biases in self-reported disease because biological markers
of
disease exhibit exactly the same patterns. To illustrate,
among
those aged 55 to 64 years, diabetes prevalence is twice as
high in
the
Conclusion Based on self-reported
illnesses and
biological markers of disease,
As well as the British Medical Journal: (abstract below)
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/extract/332/7549/1047
“Middle
aged white people are healthier in
Janice Hopkins Tanne
People aged 55 to 64 in
The disparity between the
health of
middle aged white English and American people found is so
great, the
study found, that the
prevalence of diabetes and heart disease among Americans of
the
highest socioeconomic status is similar to that among the
lowest
status English people.
The study's authors,
Michael Marmot
and colleagues at University College London, found that
middle aged
white English people had lower rates of diabetes,
hypertension,
heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, lung disease, and
cancer than
middle aged white Americans (JAMA 2006;295:
2037-45[Abstract/Free
Full Text]). The reason remains a
puzzle, although the study suggests . . . [Full
text of
this article]”
Whatever
the reasons for these finds - fatty foods, lack of exercise, stress,
conspiracy
to poison the food in
US
slips down development index
Lately,
the
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7511426.stm
US slips down development
index
|
A
district in |
Americans
live shorter lives than citizens of almost every other developed
nation,
according to a report from several
The
report found that the US
ranked 42nd in the world for life expectancy despite spending more on
health
care per person than any other country.
Overall,
the American Human
Development Report ranked the world's richest country 12th for human
development.
The
study looked at US
government data on health, education and income.
The
report was funded by Oxfam
The
report combines measurements
of health, education and income into one measurement - the human
development
index - based on that used by the United Nations.
Health insurance
The
report, Measure of America, identifies significant
progress in the
Life
expectancy - which averages 78 - has risen eight
years since 1960.
|
|
Sarah
Burd-Sharps |
The
It also
provides a snapshot of
the inequalities between the richest and the poorest Americans and
between
different ethnic groups.
|
|
See
a state-by-state breakdown of the development index
|
"The
Measure of America
reveals huge gaps among some groups in our country to access
opportunity and
reach their potential," said the report's author, Sarah Burd-Sharps.
"Some
Americans are living
anywhere from 30 to 50 years behind others when it comes to issues we
all care
about: health, education and standard of living.
"For
example, the state
human development index shows that people in last-ranked
Rich north-east
Asian
males in the
African-Americans
had a shorter lifespan than the
average American did in the late 1970s.
|
More
|
The
report further breaks down its findings into the
The 20th
district, around
The
Among
other findings:
• Of
the world's richest nations, the
• Of
the OECD nations, the
• 25%
of 15-year-old students performed at or below the lowest level in an
international maths test - worse than
• If
the
Implications
Personally,
as for me, each time I return to the
One immigrant shared this observation:
“I am
a foreigner living
here. I came across your e-booklet by chance after the 13 years I
have
lived in the States and been trying to find an answer to the high rate
of
depression (by the way I am in healthcare), unhappiness, isolation,
lack of
culture openess, fragmentation of family,
alcoholism,
and the ignorance of what real life is all about. These chronic
problems
exist despite what they seem to "have it all financially and
educationally" (I am speaking of the environment where I live and
work). I find that there is a big misconception of differenciating
between "privacy" and "isolation". Also, there is an
awkward unfulfilling self-interpretation of what happiness means.
However, I have been able to draw a striking difference between my american friends who
are
well-traveled and got to live abroad and those who never had similar
experiences or have not been open to it. Eric Fromm
in his books "to have or to be" and "the art of loving"
addresses some of these issues that industrialism has falsely
promised.
But still, people from industrialized european
countries do not seem to suffer the same unhappiness found in
One of my
best friends
Michael Goodspeed, a freethinker and
writer, eloquently sums up the
above scary findings about our
dysfunctional society in his
article Change,
Or Die:
http://www.rense.com/general63/ordie.htm
“I
can't help but feel bitter over having been born and raised in the
The
United States has born and raised 76% of the world's serial killers,
even
though we hold just 3% of the world's population; we sport the highest
rate of
childhood murders and suicides among the world's 26 wealthiest nations;
the
highest rate of obesity of any nation in the world; the highest
incidence of
the eating disorder anorexia; the highest rate of adolescent drug use
of any
industrialized nation; and the highest rate of adolescent pregnancy in
the
Western world.
I am
embittered, because like millions of my contemporaries, the poison
talons of
American culture did not leave me untouched. Before I'd grown out of
adolescence, I'd battled an eating disorder (anorexia), depression,
suicide
attempts, and Munchausen syndrome (the act
of
inflicting injuries on oneself.) Again, it is undeniable that these
pathologies
exist almost exclusively in the
Goodspeed goes on to brilliantly summarize in
one paragraph the heavy
dysfunctional problems inherent in
http://www.rense.com/general63/ordie.htm
“The
reasons for our collective dysfunction have been enumerated ad nauseam;
our
hopelessly "dumbed down" public schools;
our chemically-laced air, water, food, and soft drinks, poisoning our
bodies
and damaging our brains; our rancid and spiritually vacuous culture
centered
around a media that markets murder and sadism as entertainment; our
bought and
sold "elected" officials, who make life and death decisions based on
their own financial interests, and for whom "truth" is just a matter
of semantics; our economy, which is guided by the principles of "win at
all costs" and "screw everyone but me"; our corrupted religions,
which have been usurped by political extremists and completely robbed
of all
spiritual meaning; and the monstrously hideous, cement and brick,
Godless
"architecture" that makes up most American cities.”
Finally, here he describes how our culture manufactures mental illness and offers hope and suggestions for overcoming the insanity:
http://www.rense.com/general63/ordie.htm
“The
And
herein lies an opportunity to rise above
bitterness,
and find hope. An interesting fact about emotional dysfunction is that
it has
the ability to both paralyze its victims, and set them free. People who
struggle with mental illness have only two choices: they can live in
denial
until their lives spiral completely out of control, or they can journey
inward
and confront their demons head on. I speak from experience on this. I
have no
doubt that I am a stronger, wiser, and happier person for having
discovered
first hand the pathway out of dysfunction.
The first step out of
dysfunction is
to recognize that your way of seeing the world is fundamentally flawed.
You
have been programmed to believe that your interests are separate from
everyone
else's; that in order for you to win, someone else must lose. Remember,
mercenary competition is the key tenet of every aspect of American
culture. The
desire to be better than others stems from the belief that you are
INCOMPLETE,
and in need of an elusive, future reward in order to find happiness.
This
constant seeking of future fulfillment blinds us to the rewards that
ALWAYS
exist in the present moment.”
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