Vicarious PTSD
Like many of you I watch a scattering of alternative news sources; Dialogue Works, Danny Haiphong, Democracy Now, Canadian Prepper, Judge Palitano, Sabby Sabs, Glenn Diesen, Al Jazeera, Mario Nadal, Breaking Points, Young Turks, G.O.A.T. and Mahmood OD.
We have become very familiar with experts like Larry Johnson, Jeffrey Sachs, Col. Wilkerson, Pepe Escobar, John Mearsheimer, Col. Macgregor, Professor Marandi, Matt Hoh, Col. Karen Kwiatowski, Scott Ritter, Kyle Anzalone, Aaron Mate’, Phil Garaldi, Max Blumenthal, Gilbert Doctorow, Chas Freeman, John Helmer, Patrick Henningsen, Jiang Xueqin, Laith Marouf, Mark Sleboda, Professor Pape, Ray McGovern, Alex Krainer and Alastair Crooke, to name a few.
Pretty crazy isn’t it?
That is a lot of people and a lot of podcast news shows. I’ve been watching all of these people for so long now it is like greeting friends when they appear on the screen. After a time we are not just privy to their perspectives on the Ukraine and Iran wars but also the Hawaiian shirt competition among hosts, or that professor Marandi has a terrible cold and if you’ve watched regularly to witness Professor Sachs move through anger, frustration, sadness, disbelief and horror. All of these people truly care, are well informed and seem vested in sharing important facts, data, learned observations and even prognostications.
But the psychologist in me is beginning to worry. My worry peaked and piqued a few days ago when I heard myself say, “Blah blah blah” and then began singing a song from the musical, “My Fair Lady” …
Words Words Words
I’m so sick of words
I hear words all day through
First from him, now from you
Is that all you blighters can do?
Sing me no song
Read me no rhyme
Don’t waste my time
Show me
Don’t talk of June
Don’t talk of fall
Don’t talk at all
Show me
Never do I ever
want to hear another word
There isn’t one
I haven’t heard
Here we are together in
What ought to be a dream
Say one more word
And I’ll scream
- Songwriters: Alan Jay Lerner / Frederick Loewe
As the wars drag on, years now, we continue to hear the same sound bites …
Ukraine is losing and the war will be over in ’two weeks’
Putin has set a ‘Red Line”. And another Red Line. And another …
The Straits are blocked, unblocked, blocked, unblocked, blocked
The Zionists are carrying out multiple genocides … body counts every day
Because of the reporting we all are becoming missile experts … hypersonic, sub-sonic, super sonic, ballistic, air to air, air to ground, ground to air, ground to ground, atomic, hydrogen, anti-submarine, anti-radiation, shoulder fired, land-attack, tactical, tactical nukes, dirty bombs, thermobaric bombs, SRBM’s, MRBM’s, IRBM’s, ICBM’s.
We all know now how to protect our tanks from drone strikes. We know about drone jamming and like soap-on-a-rope we are familiar with fibre optic drones-on-a-tether (it is reported that hundreds of thousands of miles of fibre-optic and plastic ’string’ cover the trees and fields of Ukraine.)
Millions of people have been killed and wounded in wars since 2023. hundreds of thousands of tons of explosives have been used. Millions of animals killed. Millions of acre of farm land polluted. Air polluted by oil facility bombings.
1000’s of children murdered, blood ceremony. 1000’s of people trafficked.
Cities and countries bombed, flattened, destroyed.
All of that said what are my fears for us as Americans, as human beings?
That we have become numb to death, inured to violence and destruction and are losing our ability and willingness to empathize. We are losing our humanity.
That we are overwhelmed by all of the the death and destruction
That we have begun to view all of this, partly because of our technology, as a video game. We speak of money, oil, control but the fact that people will die is almost an add on to conversations about the consequences of war.
That we are getting bored by the repetitious stories of the talking heads and at this point most of us could regurgitate the same stories and predictions we hear over and over and over.
That we don’t know who to root for!!
That we don’t know what or whom to believe!
And here is the big one … people won’t like this one …. so don’t just deny this but ponder…
THAT BECAUSE ALL OF THIS HAS THE FLAVOR OF A BAD NOVEL OR VIDEO GAME … WE WILL BE BORED AND DISAPPOINTED WHEN ALL OF THIS IS OVER…
.. not because we are sadists or horrible people but because we ALL SUFFER FROM VICARIOUS PTSD.
In my 45 years as a therapist I have counseled dozens and dozens of war vets who suffer from various levels, intensities and types of PTSD (and neurological brain damage). Heightened sensitivity, hyper-awareness, hyper-vigilance, paranoia, anger, sadness, hopelessness, depression, addiction, violence, self and other abuse are all symptoms of PTSD.
We have a country, an entire world, that is suffering from or will be suffering from ‘lived’ PTSD and vicarious PTSD. People will report being ‘happy’ the war is over. But consider, in my lifetime of 75 years we have been at war ALL BUT SIX YEARS.
Are we so addicted to war that we can’t stop? Are all of us such sheeple now that we allow one IDIOT to decide who lives and who dies and if we go to war or not? If you were a parent of one of the ’13’ Americans killed in this war how would you feel? Why do we exist every day, awakening to the thought, “I wonder if ‘we’ attacked Iran yet? I wonder if nuclear weapons[ons were used while I slept? I wonder what all the talking heads will spout today (In my list are 20 white males, one white woman, one Chinese American, three Middle Easterners and one Brazilian.
And, think of the PTSD of the children in these war torn countries. All will suffer from Attachments Disorders …. an attachment disorder is defined as a serious psychiatric conditions that develop in young children who fail to form healthy emotional bonds with primary caregivers, often due to abuse, neglect, or broken foster care. There will be hundreds of thousands of thousands of abandoned and wounded children who will not grow up to be healthy, balanced adults. We will have created a world of angry, seething, confused, wounded, malnourished, suffering, lonely, needy young adults who do not understand relationship and wish too lash out in some way.
Those of us who feel helpless regarding stopping this war or Trump and his idiot flying monkeys can focus on how we MUST help the children of the world to heal. NOT by giving the Oprah’s of the world our money … but by creating systems and processes OURSELVES to heal the children. We must begin now.
Years ago, I was on my way to something important. I pulled my car over to write down what the psychiatrist on the radio had just said-"We all suffer from PTSD it's how we have geared society. Rousseau nailed it when he wrote: "The first man, who after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say that this is mine and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. How many crimes, how many wars, how many murders, how many misfortunes and horrors could have been spared if someone had pulled up the stakes and cried to his fellows Don't listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong equally to all of us and the earth itself to nobody." America was built by men who were skilled at putting in stakes as land speculators who wiped out the natives and enslaved people to get rich. The founding fathers were hardly revolutionary or deep philosophers but land speculators who merely marketed freedom.