Could America’s Social Mood Tip into Madness?

I’ve long been fascinated yet horrified about the conditions and processes that somehow transforms nations and the collective actions of highly civilized people into inhuman beings possessed by total madness. For example, Hitler’s Germany, Mao’s “Great Leap Forward”, and Pol Pot’s Cambodian killing fields are spot on examples of how evil can quickly be spread throughout a society by a powerful “leader” sociopath with a political agenda, as crazy as it may be.

An America under great stress could and probably will once again descend into madness. I say once again as we have been there before. Our Civil War is a good example of this as disagreements over States rights and the role of the federal government led to the unthinkable, a war between the States. The Senator McCarthy era of the 1950′s is another example of how a talented, if misguided, orator demigod gained control of the national dialogue, which led to the persecution of many people who just happened to disagree with the Sen. and his mad methods. Then in the 1960′s there were numerous riots and civil disturbances as one of the consequences of the unpopular war being fought in Vietnam.

The mass bombing of heavily populated civilian centers in Germany and Japan in World War Two is yet another example of how decent citizens can be manipulated by their leaders in government. The heavy bombing of German and Japanese population centers, occupied primarily by civilians, must have seemed horribly wrong to many American and British citizens, that is until their governments by control of the media were able to present the bombings as a necessary evil and a normal activity against a tough and entrenched enemy. Germans and Japanese citizens were presented by the American government to the American public as less than human as that made it easier to exterminate them. What is that other than leaders manipulating group think and tipping social mood into madness?

Some bombing runs against city centers were terrorist attacks in the sense that they were designed to terrorize the population for a political end, not to destroy military targets. Fighting evil by becoming evil may be effective but hardly keeps one on firm moral ground. The madness of killing hundreds of thousands of civilians was opposed by few Americans or Brits. The total fire storm destruction of major cities was celebrated by the allies. Throughout history, there are many such examples of how charismatic leaders who are media savvy can manipulate populations into a condition of madness.

Today the early stages of a financial melt down and the long term crises associated with the liquidation of unprecedented debt that most of the Western world, certainly America, faces sets up the possibility of yet another descent into madness. As unemployment remains at high levels and standards of living fall in America the hate filled dialog of even one media savvy sociopathic “leader”, probably not yet elected to public office, could tip America’s social mood into one of complete madness.

We are already experiencing early signs of this. The verbal and physical attacks against Congressman who voted for and even against the health reform act are an example of anger and rage felt by many American voters boiling to the surface. This anger has been fanned by politicians and talking heads in both the Republican and Democrat parties. People will become ever more angry and violent as their standard of living falls and then can be even more easily manipulated.

There is a real danger of a population where many people are living on the edge getting completely out of control. If the nation tips into a condition of national chaos and disorder it will be difficult for anyone living within the United States to escape the consequences. Those who think that a private horde of guns, ammo, water, and food will save them from national madness are dreaming unless they are completely hidden away far off the radar. In fact, anyone who is thought by the raving fired up mobs to possess anything of value or thought to be somehow “un-American” will soon come under repeated attack until the mob gets whatever it wants.

As resources become ever more scarce and the various media savvy “leader’s” voices becomes louder and more shrill the descent into madness may come faster than anyone now thinks. Who in the civilized Germany that existed prior to Hitler could envision the madness that would soon follow? In the early 1930′s Hitler was even admired and considered a great leader by many elite Americans and Brits.

Could America’s social mood tip into complete madness? What do you think? Is the process already underway? Could a greater depression take us over the edge of reason into madness?