The Cosmic Bullseye

 

I am blushing. My New York Times comment to a Charles Blow article* got a pretty fair number of appreciations:

In a way, I think that the biggest problem of our time is that we have become aware, thanks to the news and the Internet, how emotionally disturbed so many of our fellow citizens are. https://nyti.ms/3Eef4D5#permid=117833903.

Plain and simple, grammatically rough, and hitting the cosmic bullseye. Because while awful circum­stances come and go all the time – “Pandemic PTSD,” the “Great Resig­nation,” “Great Grief,” more road rage and gun violence than usual, Blow cites – real­izing that so many people are so corruptly messed up is to dye our psyche, turn our soul to dark­ness, change who we are. It’s the Psychological Messiah, or Antichrist. Realizing this, we will not go back. We have instantly devolved into stunned, huddled watchers.

It started when we realized, two elections ago, that millions of people loved or were deluded by a narcis­sist and socio­path, Donald Trump. And it continues today, tomorrow and into the future, where these people hate a basic­ally innoc­uous president, hate Demo­crats because they are Demo­crats, and love sopho­moric haters who have not an ounce of class. There is mental illness – never to be stigmatized – and there are those person­ality disorders who throw their full colostomy bags at social workers.

This is "disappointment" writ across time and space.

Counselors: If you believe you are helping these afflicted clients, you are professionally mistaken. To remain congenitally angry as a trait is to cover core hurt – yes, from child­hood. And to be barri­caded, defended at one’s depth is to be impervious to help. You are letting them blow off steam and cry tears that come from their twisted umbilical cord. But that steam is infinite, as are the tears.

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* https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/opinion/covid-pandemic-ptsd.html.