America’s ‘learned helplessness’
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor

Aug 1, 2008, 00:33

Wikipedia describes ‘learned helplessness’ as “a psychological condition in which a human being or an animal has learned to act or behave helpless in a particular situation, even when it has the power to change its unpleasant or even harmful circumstance.” Sound familiar?

“Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical depression and related mental illness result from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation (Seligman, 1975).” Does any of that remind you of living in America for the last eight years through various rigged elections, 9/11, the War on Terror, water-boarding, Abu Ghraib, financial philandering, etc.? Raise your hands. read