After the war it was not just individual people that who traumatised, but the whole of society. Being robbed of years of life, facing death and disruption on a

After the war it was not just individual people that who traumatised, but the whole of society. Being robbed of years of life, facing death and disruption on a daily basis has long term effects. It brings home mortality and makes one focus on the more important things in life, like spending time with family and looking after your health. After WW2 we entered a period of extraordinary economic growth. Most of "modern America" was built in this time. But something is different about COVID, climate emergency and the emerging Ukraine crisis. While they are all similar types of stressor in creating societal trauma, the upshot is a withdrawal toward slower economy, low growth and even regression in some areas. We all know the "party is over", at least until fusion is here. It's not just an aging population either, I hear this from 19 year old kids. What's the solution? William James wrote a fascinating long-essay/booklet called the "Moral equivalent of war". Some people read it as a call for something simplistic like "National Service", but it's actually a psychologically astute account of human (and he claims especially male) need to feel "useful and part of something". Technological capitalism is failing to deliver that. On the contrary it is making us weak and dependent. Resignation means two things. One is quitting a job. The other is "surrender in the face of despair" Make of that what you will about our societal disposition in 2022.