- Jan 15, 2013
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I found a number of articles that bring up some valid points. Albeit I might not agree with everything, it does beg the question, are we so detached, disconnected, so un empathetic now that we are showing the tale tell signs of a country on the decline?
The United States of America is a nation that is showing signs of crumbling within . There so many signs of it . The word for it might be lack of empathy within our society . Yes, Empathy - supposedly a spontaneous reaction to the plight of our fellow humans -is now channeled through self-interested and bloated non-government organizations or multilateral outfits.
The vibrant world of private empathy has been replaced by faceless state largesse. Pity, mercy, the elation of giving are tax-deductible. It is a sorry sight . Here is an example The parent company of a Bakersfield senior living facility where a staff member refused to perform CPR , because of "company" policy .The staff member said it was against the facility's policy for her to perform CPR, according to a 911 tape released by the Bakersfield Fire Department. Initially, Glenwood Gardens said the staff member followed protocol. This woman calls herself a "NURSE"? Outraged!! Families put their loved ones in facilities to get care and support.
IN another STORY that caught my eye this week was the story of a Surrogate mother who refused to have an abortion , she was being reportedly offered 10,000 $. Crystal Kelley ran through the calendar once again in her head. It was August, and if she got pregnant soon, she could avoid carrying during the hot summer months -- she'd done that before and didn't want to do it again. There was no time to lose.When a Connecticut couple learned their surrogate mother was carrying a fetus with developmental disabilities, they offered her $10,000 to have an abortion, reported CNN. This is what happens when people play God. The first couple, not content with the three children they already had - perhaps because they weren't born perfect? - "desperately" wanted a fourth which the mother couldn't carry, and apparently, didn't even have an egg for. The surrogate wanted the money, not the baby, except when it became clear to her that the supposed real parents no longer wanted the baby. Only then did she develop an attachment, which lasted only until she found someone willing to take this fragile, special needs baby off her hands. She couldn't take care of her, not without a job or lot of financial support, not when she had two other mouths to feed. When push came to shove (pun intended), she did her research and fled to a state where she could instantly apply for medicaid to care for the child, where the state would allow her to make the decisions of where this baby should go. This wasn't a miracle of life, it was the miracle of modern science creating a malformed child destined to a short life of round the clock care. Isnt it amazing that Pro Choice people think it is okay so long as one makes only one of the choices?? Verce the baby was adopted out to a loving family who was willing to love a baby unconditionally.
Another aspect to this . Is how "detached" everything is in America . Our Nation has poverty , there are poor , and homeless that need help . Yet no one is helping them . Detachment is alarming when we perceive all is well , but it is not well . The Stock Market gains after 4 years at an alarming rate . It's so much fun to own stocks these days, with the Dow Industrials and Wilshire 5000 index setting one new high after another, and the Standard & Poor's 500 within 1% of doing the same. Watching the value of your portfolio rise is such a delightful indoor sport. All this happiness and moneymaking (if only on paper) are what make Saturday's anniversary so interesting and educational. What anniversary, you ask? Why, the fourth anniversary of the market bottom, reached by all three of the major indicators on Mar. 9, 2009. You remember those days, don't you? It was a hideous time, with people losing their jobs, house prices collapsing, the world financial system teetering on the brink, and the U.S. stock market, as measured by the Wilshire, down a sickening 57% -- or $11.2 trillionfrom its high 17 months earlier.Stock prices are "propped up" by millions of buyers who want to own stocks at these prices. Those of you who see another market crash just around the corner should stay out of the market. Those of us who moved money off the sidelines into stocks four years ago are pleased with our choices.Who believes this garbage is sustainable. The ONLY reason stocks are this high is because of Bernanke and his printing press. If you think an 8 trillion increase in debt and devaluation of the dollar is worth it, have at it. The stock market is generally a poor proxy for the economy. Both, however, are characterized by extreme inequality, with large amounts of spending power concentrated at the extremes. "Companies know and they've sort of noticed that the consumers in the middle are not doing so well, said Chris Christopher, an economist at research firm IHS. However, they've realized that the upper income brackets are doing fine. Then there's people that are living paycheck to paycheck that are always looking for a good deal," As Christopher portrayed it, that has produced a "bifurcation" of the stock market, with companies harvesting profits by targeting customers at either end of the income spectrum. Those companies that stick to the middle tier just suffer, he said. Central bank prints $85 billion every month. How much of that money makes it into the middle class pockets? In the town that launched the War on Poverty 48 years ago, the poor are getting poorer despite the government's help. And the rich are getting richer because of it.The top 5 percent of households in Washington, D.C., made more than $500,000 on average last year, while the bottom 20 percent earned less than $9,500 - a ratio of 54 to 1. That gap is up from 39 to 1 two decades ago. It's wider than in any of the 50 states and all but two major cities. This at a time when income inequality in the United States as a whole has risen to levels last seen in the years before the Great Depression. The federal government does redistribute wealth down to struggling Americans. But in the years since President Lyndon Johnson took aim at poverty in his first State of the Union address, there has been an increasingly strong crosscurrent: The government is redistributing wealth up, too - especially in the nation's capital.
Link to above article blog: http://theun-politics.blogspot.com/2013/03/american-societys-lack-of-empathy.html
Here is another article on the same subject by a pscyhologist that talks about what he is seeing in America with lack of empathy and detachment among his fellow Americans. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/douglas-labier/americas-continuing-empat_b_637718.html
EDD has profound consequences for the mental health of individuals and society. Yet it's ignored as a psychological disturbance by most of my colleagues in the mental health professions, largely because it's become the norm throughout our emotional attitudes, public policies and behavior.
First, some explanation of what I mean by EDD: It's reflected in being unable to step outside yourself and tune in to what other people experience, especially those who feel, think and believe differently from yourself. EDD is a source of personal conflicts, of communication breakdown in intimate relationships, and of adversarial attitudes - including hatred - towards groups of people who differ in their beliefs, traditions, values or ways of life from your own.
The United States of America is a nation that is showing signs of crumbling within . There so many signs of it . The word for it might be lack of empathy within our society . Yes, Empathy - supposedly a spontaneous reaction to the plight of our fellow humans -is now channeled through self-interested and bloated non-government organizations or multilateral outfits.
The vibrant world of private empathy has been replaced by faceless state largesse. Pity, mercy, the elation of giving are tax-deductible. It is a sorry sight . Here is an example The parent company of a Bakersfield senior living facility where a staff member refused to perform CPR , because of "company" policy .The staff member said it was against the facility's policy for her to perform CPR, according to a 911 tape released by the Bakersfield Fire Department. Initially, Glenwood Gardens said the staff member followed protocol. This woman calls herself a "NURSE"? Outraged!! Families put their loved ones in facilities to get care and support.
IN another STORY that caught my eye this week was the story of a Surrogate mother who refused to have an abortion , she was being reportedly offered 10,000 $. Crystal Kelley ran through the calendar once again in her head. It was August, and if she got pregnant soon, she could avoid carrying during the hot summer months -- she'd done that before and didn't want to do it again. There was no time to lose.When a Connecticut couple learned their surrogate mother was carrying a fetus with developmental disabilities, they offered her $10,000 to have an abortion, reported CNN. This is what happens when people play God. The first couple, not content with the three children they already had - perhaps because they weren't born perfect? - "desperately" wanted a fourth which the mother couldn't carry, and apparently, didn't even have an egg for. The surrogate wanted the money, not the baby, except when it became clear to her that the supposed real parents no longer wanted the baby. Only then did she develop an attachment, which lasted only until she found someone willing to take this fragile, special needs baby off her hands. She couldn't take care of her, not without a job or lot of financial support, not when she had two other mouths to feed. When push came to shove (pun intended), she did her research and fled to a state where she could instantly apply for medicaid to care for the child, where the state would allow her to make the decisions of where this baby should go. This wasn't a miracle of life, it was the miracle of modern science creating a malformed child destined to a short life of round the clock care. Isnt it amazing that Pro Choice people think it is okay so long as one makes only one of the choices?? Verce the baby was adopted out to a loving family who was willing to love a baby unconditionally.
Another aspect to this . Is how "detached" everything is in America . Our Nation has poverty , there are poor , and homeless that need help . Yet no one is helping them . Detachment is alarming when we perceive all is well , but it is not well . The Stock Market gains after 4 years at an alarming rate . It's so much fun to own stocks these days, with the Dow Industrials and Wilshire 5000 index setting one new high after another, and the Standard & Poor's 500 within 1% of doing the same. Watching the value of your portfolio rise is such a delightful indoor sport. All this happiness and moneymaking (if only on paper) are what make Saturday's anniversary so interesting and educational. What anniversary, you ask? Why, the fourth anniversary of the market bottom, reached by all three of the major indicators on Mar. 9, 2009. You remember those days, don't you? It was a hideous time, with people losing their jobs, house prices collapsing, the world financial system teetering on the brink, and the U.S. stock market, as measured by the Wilshire, down a sickening 57% -- or $11.2 trillionfrom its high 17 months earlier.Stock prices are "propped up" by millions of buyers who want to own stocks at these prices. Those of you who see another market crash just around the corner should stay out of the market. Those of us who moved money off the sidelines into stocks four years ago are pleased with our choices.Who believes this garbage is sustainable. The ONLY reason stocks are this high is because of Bernanke and his printing press. If you think an 8 trillion increase in debt and devaluation of the dollar is worth it, have at it. The stock market is generally a poor proxy for the economy. Both, however, are characterized by extreme inequality, with large amounts of spending power concentrated at the extremes. "Companies know and they've sort of noticed that the consumers in the middle are not doing so well, said Chris Christopher, an economist at research firm IHS. However, they've realized that the upper income brackets are doing fine. Then there's people that are living paycheck to paycheck that are always looking for a good deal," As Christopher portrayed it, that has produced a "bifurcation" of the stock market, with companies harvesting profits by targeting customers at either end of the income spectrum. Those companies that stick to the middle tier just suffer, he said. Central bank prints $85 billion every month. How much of that money makes it into the middle class pockets? In the town that launched the War on Poverty 48 years ago, the poor are getting poorer despite the government's help. And the rich are getting richer because of it.The top 5 percent of households in Washington, D.C., made more than $500,000 on average last year, while the bottom 20 percent earned less than $9,500 - a ratio of 54 to 1. That gap is up from 39 to 1 two decades ago. It's wider than in any of the 50 states and all but two major cities. This at a time when income inequality in the United States as a whole has risen to levels last seen in the years before the Great Depression. The federal government does redistribute wealth down to struggling Americans. But in the years since President Lyndon Johnson took aim at poverty in his first State of the Union address, there has been an increasingly strong crosscurrent: The government is redistributing wealth up, too - especially in the nation's capital.
Link to above article blog: http://theun-politics.blogspot.com/2013/03/american-societys-lack-of-empathy.html
Here is another article on the same subject by a pscyhologist that talks about what he is seeing in America with lack of empathy and detachment among his fellow Americans. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/douglas-labier/americas-continuing-empat_b_637718.html
EDD has profound consequences for the mental health of individuals and society. Yet it's ignored as a psychological disturbance by most of my colleagues in the mental health professions, largely because it's become the norm throughout our emotional attitudes, public policies and behavior.
First, some explanation of what I mean by EDD: It's reflected in being unable to step outside yourself and tune in to what other people experience, especially those who feel, think and believe differently from yourself. EDD is a source of personal conflicts, of communication breakdown in intimate relationships, and of adversarial attitudes - including hatred - towards groups of people who differ in their beliefs, traditions, values or ways of life from your own.
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