Joe Bageant: Only in America Could Misery Be Turned Into a Commodity

[laststeamtrain]

Only in America Could Misery Be Turned Into a Commodity
By Joe Bageant, JoeBageant.com
Posted on February 11, 2009, Printed on February 11, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/126345/

HOPKINS VILLAGE, Belize -- Sitting down here in Central America, happily abusing my health, occasionally, between the hangovers and the bouts with sand fleas and mosquitoes comes an insight or two, or at least what passes for insight in my lowbrow take on life.

One of these is just how damned lucky the Third World is that it cannot afford a sophisticated mental health system. By that I mean the kind like in the "developed countries," where murder and suicide rates are quintuple what they are here in this village. Not that we are without own village resources.

My Garifuna buddy Eljay, was in what we would call a depressed state a few months ago and went to a local "spirit doctor." The wizened old spirit mojo man cured Eljay with a single utterance: "Quit smokin' da ganja for one month." It worked. Total cost: About $2.50 and a pound of red beans.

They say the old spirit doctor also treats such things as sexual dysfunction, although I sure as hell cannot detect much evidence of dysfunction, judging from the noises in the village cabanas and under beachside palms at night.

In any case, it causes me to wonder why is there enough pain and alienation to sustain America's umpteen-billion-dollar mental health business and its 400-plus specialties, not to mention the inner self-help industry and Deepak Chopra's royal court. Why is it that during the months I spend in America, I meet so many obviously sick fuckers, some successfully practicing law or politics, others homeless and schizophrenic?

You need not be Marcus or R.D. Lang to feel the stress, depression, boredom and loneliness permeating everyday life up there in Gringolia. But to get an overview, it does help to be a couple thousand miles outside the place. Kind of like being high in the stands at the racetrack with binoculars rather than down at the rail next to the paddock.

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http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/126345/only_in_america_could_misery_be_turned_into_a_commodity/

[The River]

1. Joe Nails It Again

as he always does.
Money can't buy happiness but it can buy therapy!

[mnhtnbb]

2. The US doesn't value what's important. We have a society that values $$.

Living in a culture that devalues human interaction and dependency makes us all sick--at heart--if not physically.

[LynzM]

4. Yep.

It's very sad... there are communities within the larger communities, where support and caring exist, but you have to work hard and seek them out; they are not the norm. :(

[Manifestor_of_Light]

3. America denies having a Social Contract.

America denies that it takes a village and a community. America denies that we have a moral obligation to help others in our community.

Do we want to have a safety net, services for the homeless, the jobless, the sick, the disabled, children in poverty? Do we want to have a civilized society?

Or do we want to continue the Repuke way of "If you're sick or unemployed it's your own damn fault!". ?

I have a classic book called BLAMING THE VICTIM by William Ryan.

Quote: The elimination of stresses and the opportunity to influence one's environment could be brought to bear on the mental health problems of the poor. Program development could be turned form the unproductive questions of status and lifestyle and focused on the down to earth issues of money and power...The mental health professional would have to confront inequality in American life."