The power of bread and circuses is not enough. There has to be another reason why Americans are not more vociferously fighting obvious oppressive policies.
No. For victims of the abuse syndrome, the truth of their passive submission to humiliating oppression is more than embarrassing; it can feel shameful -- and there is nothing more painful than shame. When one already feels beaten down and demoralized, the likely response to the pain of shame is not constructive action, but more attempts to shut down or divert oneself from this pain. It is not likely that the truth of one's humiliating oppression is going to energize one to constructive actions.
Has such a demoralization happened in the U.S.?
In the United States, 47 million people are without health insurance, and many millions more are underinsured or a job layoff away from losing their coverage. But despite the current sellout by their elected officials to the insurance industry, there is no outpouring of millions of U.S. citizens on the streets of Washington, D.C., protesting this betrayal.
Polls show that the majority of Americans oppose U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the taxpayer bailout of the financial industry, yet only a handful of U.S. citizens have protested these circumstances.
So instead of recognizing they have been made the fool of and swindled massively many Americans have doubled down embracing hyper-Nationalism in its many forms. From the Tea Party to xenophobia to rabid political partisanship Americans are desperately clinging to the reality they know in lieu of the unknown. To their own continued detriment; losing the battle against climate change, continued unemployment in a top heavy economy, and continued expansionist military policy still being the norm.
This is why we have people making $35,000 a year and $250,000 in debt yelling at Occupiers from their cars to get a job, as if that would fix the issues being protested against. They shout these things like they are incantations to prevent further subjugation of their own selves with the most intense of the drive by shouters driving vehicles of the poorest members of society.
Would you want to admit you were swindled by obvious snake oil salespersons? And not only swindled but encouraged your friends, families, and neighbors to buy the same "cure"? A cure that leaves them weakened, broke, and without a home or a job.
So the deception is prolonged and the abusers get more abusive not less with time. Each incidence is a test on their part as to what they can successfully get away with without repercussions. And to stack the deck they subvert the regulatory systems that are designed to keep such abuses in check.
There is one thing I do know from not only my own experience with Stockholm Syndrome but watching others grow out of the cycle of abuse- When they do find their voice there will be no stopping them.