I don’t know about you, but I think something is terribly wrong. I think the people of the United States of America are having a nervous breakdown. Every day you hear/read/see stories about hate/violence/anger/really hateful anger/with words and guns/knives/cars, all kinds of weapons, and it’s all making its way onto FaceBook/YouTube/Instagram/X because well that’s where we share our psychological issues and trust me I see them every day wondering what the f*ck is wrong with you?

Maybe I’m reading too much into those headlines/videos. Maybe it’s just all theatre or simply people getting their steaming frustrations out of their minds and hearts, and it’s okay because once they’ve got it all out (it’s just words mixed with a little physical demonstrations for effect), they’ll go back to being ordinary citizens rushing to work, rushing to school, rushing to pick up their kids but first they need to stop at their local gun shop to pick up that Heckler and Koch HK MG4 MG 43 Machine Gun or maybe something a little more subtle like the F2000 Assault Rifle (too obvious?) have you thought about the XM307 ACSW Advanced Heavy Machine Gun (not looking for a weapon of war?) then come on how serious are you about protecting your family from the other citizens/non-citizens who are having a nervous breakdown more severe than you (at the moment).

That’s okay, you say. I can’t carry that big old gun and the kid all at the same time. And anyway, you tell me you’re not into weapons of war. You would rather scream at your friends and neighbors and even strangers about anything that comes to mind because they looked at you wrong or because they parked on a public street in front of your house (that’s my parking space) even though you have a garage and a driveway and you’ve had an empty life and a boring day, and you’re just looking for a fight with anyone (trust me, I’ve seen the video).

As far back as 2021 (What was happening then?), there were all these articles online about “America's nervous breakdown is right on Schedule”/“A Nation on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”/or two years ago, “90% of US adults say the United States is experiencing a mental health crisis, CNN/KFF poll finds”/and then we can confirm that something more ominous is happening “America’s Mental Health Crisis”/so much anger.

It was bound to affect us as individuals. I mean this much anger/hate/frustration and all the other related emotions like depression/anxiety/and whatever else is bubbling up inside of all of us/FEAR/that the other side will win when the fact of the matter is no one will win because we’ll all be on fire from all these combustible emotions and all it takes is one spark to light it all on fire.

Don’t beat around the bush. We know what you’re trying to tell us. This is really about the election year 2024. And you say, well, yes, a little, but the rest is true without the election. The election was a doozy. This is probably not the right word to describe what some of us hoped would happen the day after the confirmation of the results of the voting (We’re going to make J6 look like _______(fill in your worst nightmare). Apocalyptic. Now, that’s a word. APOCALYPTIC.

“adjective
1.	describing or prophesying the complete destruction of the world.
"the apocalyptic visions of ecologists"
resembling the end of the world; momentous or catastrophic.
"the struggle between the two countries is assuming apocalyptic proportions" (Definitions from Oxford Languages).”

Am I nervous about it, what now? The Word APOCALYPTIC. It’s not the first nor will it be the last time that predictions of our imminent downfall/evaporation/disintegration/hell, I lived through the fifties and sixties and MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction)/Nuclear weapons/Atomic Bomb attack drills, and somehow we found the time and energy to disrupt the culture/politics/history and survive. It can be done again.

Naïve, you tell me. The internet /tubes of destruction/ didn’t exist back then. We were living in an artificial world of three broadcast networks and print newspapers and magazines, and we thought we knew everything that was going on only to discover that we knew only a little bit of what was going on, and somehow, we didn’t completely wipe us all off the map (ignorance is bliss).

I’m not going to lie. I’m nervous. Not like in a nervous breakdown, but nervous nonetheless. I watch all these little videos on Facebook and TiketyTok and wonder if they are just online for entertainment or if they are a warning. A warning that people are really uptight these days. That any moment now, a match/a grenade/a bomb/a flamethrower/an instrument of destruction could be tossed into a cauldron of gasoline/simmering flames/bubbling oil and             BOOM. It’s all gone up in flames and smoke and fire. And that’s only the first day.

I have a friend who is much more optimistic than me about things these days. He believes that, in the end, good will triumph over evil. I laugh. Then, I ask which is the good and which is the evil because I’m not sure Americans can tell the difference anymore. Man, that’s sad. It used to be easier to tell the difference. At least that’s what they told us.

I want to believe what my friend believes, but all those crazy/nutso/depressing videos of people/Americans/human beings screaming and fighting and cursing and threatening other people/Americans/human beings over the smallest of nothing reminds me that if there is hope for all of us, it better hurry up and show up because I think we’re running out of time and no one can save us but us.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed and my eyes wide open. Please prove me wrong, and don’t have that nervous breakdown.