20th Century Fallout...
I think my generation and perhaps all of Gen X is suffering from PTSD.
I was born in 1965, and throughout that time period I have been exposed to violence, trauma, fear, and pain...and that's just from TV. Lump that with with all of the actual experiences that I have had and have exposed myself to and you see the whopping stress that has encompassed my life. It has come to the point that I don't flinch when I see death and destruction on the screen, and actually crave that kind of action once in a while from the movies.
I don't think I'm alone in this experience. I know many people like me, most of whom are trying to solve their problems through whatever means necessary: therapy, 12 Step programs, spirituality, religion...you name it.
We are all running for cover in the fallout from the most violent of eras in the history of humanity. These times have made their mark.
Look at the TV ads for pharmaceuticals products: it's all about pain relief, indigestion, sleeplessness, drowsiness, constipation, ADHD, ADD, stress, body image issues, and more. These are all common symptoms of PTSD. No wonder people are blowing each other up. After a while it probably begins to make sense. As a world culture we have allowed ourselves to be victims, even when we were legitimately wronged.
It's like that scene in 'Repo Man', when Duke is dying in the liquor store, and he says, "I blame society...society made me what I am..."
I think the guy might be right...
Johnnyboy
posted by John D.C. Masters @ 7/08/2006
1 Comments:
It's an interesting theory with some merit, and definitely worth considering. The pharmaceutical phenom- A Pill For Every Occasion- is largely American and tends to cause raised eyebrows abroad. Depression, ADHD, etc. aren't seen nearly as often in European societies from what I've read, because most have found a better balance (between work and play for example) which goes a long way towards alleviating a lot of the stress. And speaking of society, I do hate blaming it for making me as I am, or allowing it to be an excuse for the behavior of others. There has always been violence, trauma, fear and pain, televised or otherwise. The conflict in Korea, WWI and II, Civil War, War of 1812, Revolutionary war. That's just the US. Talk about violent eras, how about the Crusades? Eerily like our own times in some ways. Those earlier ones weren't televised and were perhaps even more frightening because of it. News took so much longer to travel and one never knew where loved ones were, or if they were still alive. Quite often all they had were months-old horror stories.They also used religion, spirituality and the occasional snake oil salesman to cure their ills, not unlike us. If anything, with the high mortality rates of earlier times I believe they were more inured to death and violence than we are with our modern conveniences and medical knowledge. They were more accepting of these things as a way of life, because for them it was.
I don't think we have PTSD as a society after all. I think we're just people living as best we can through another bad time in the cycle of history. The political pendulum swung to the right and, if my professors were correct, it's due to swing back to the left in the next election. Every 10 years or so, they taught me, that pendulum swings back and forth. We tend to be reactive as a whole I think. So perhaps we have some better, happier times ahead still.
I'm afraid that while I think society may contribute to the choices we make, the decision to act or not is our own. I may be influenced by the world in which I live, but ultimately I am responsible for the things I do.
Thanks for inspiring me to think more deeply and examine my thoughts more closely tonight. :0)
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