Looking at everything

[pegkerr]

Looking at my checkbook and the job market and the news and the state of the country . . .

I just can't shake the feeling that everything is sliding toward the abyss.

Anyone else having that feeling?

Comments

[davidwilford.livejournal.com]

Funny you should mention that. (http://davidwilford.livejournal.com/571983.html)

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I wish I didn't.

[utterings.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

I've been growing more anxious that the bubble which seems to be protectively encircling the Northeast would be squeezed to popping at some point -- and this morning's news about Wall Street has me abjectly terrified that it's now.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Yes. However, most times when people (including me) have that feeling, it's not true.

Yet hope remains.

The abyss

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

As I look at the juggernaut of a presidential/vice-presidential ticket composed of John McCain and Sarah Palin, who will do the country tremendous damage and who (unfortunately) look like shoo-ins for their victory, I feel us going closer and closer to the abyss. I don't have anything hopeful to say, and am not even remotely okay with living in the country where they will be in charge, yet (unless I want to leave for England or Canada) I will have very little choice. (They won't win by a tremendous amount, but if things keep going the way they are going, they will win.)

Nate

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

Yes. These days I don't really believe I'll live to see 40.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

There was a time when I thought I wouldn't get to see 30--I'm about to turn 66.

It's grim, though.

our anxiety was doubled

[dragonet2.livejournal.com]

when unemployment ran out and the state could not get its act together.

we were relieved when, despite the fact the only time I actually got hold of a person she told me that ;my case would be adjudicated and once approved I'd have to file a couple weeks by mail, I received the approval form AND separately a check for 7 weeks worth. Granted that only leaves six more weeks but it helped.

I've sent out lots of resumes but have only had five interviews. I'm extremely anxious about it.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I don't have that feeling, because I can't name very many people who have been laid off from their jobs. I am sorry that Rob is one of them.

K.

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

I don't know many people who have been laid off, but I know of a LOT of new graduates (from various levels) who are struggling to find jobs, any jobs, enough to just cover bills and haven't even begun to address their educational debt.

[liadan-m.livejournal.com]

amen.

[tigergladys.livejournal.com]

Like me.

[whiskeychick.livejournal.com]

Yes; I go from calm to panic in a matter of seconds.

/sitting here waiting for the other shoe to drop

[http://users.livejournal.com/anam_cara_/]

Yes. Absolutely, yes. Have you seen that icon around- Hey, where are we going? And how did we get in this handbasket? That's about how I feel.

[qwyneth.livejournal.com]

Yes. I was notified a few weeks ago that I'm being laid off due to a company buyout. I don't have my end date yet, but it's looking more and more like they'll kick me out the minute I finish a couple small projects for them. Thing is, I'm also five months pregnant. I haven't been able to land any interviews yet, and soon it won't matter if I do because no one will hire a hugely pregnant woman. And we're looking at so many expenses coming up with the new baby, and only one paycheck to cover them.

I'm terrified McCain and Palin will win, absolutely terrified. I feel like we're teetering on a cliff, and if they win we'll fall headlong over the side. And they just keep lying more and more and doing better and better.

And then there's the environment and peak oil...gaaaaaaaah.

I usually listen to NPR in the car. Lately I've had to turn the radio off because I just can't bear to hear anything more about it all.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm concerned because the right-wingers (whether in your country or mine) just don't seem to have a clear grasp of the fundamentals.

Basic things, like avoiding a ballooning public debt, maintaining physical infrastructure like water and sewers and roads and bridges, ensuring a healthy and growing middle class, supporting social infrastructure like schools & hospitals and welfare. Programs and things that ensure social stability and long-term social health.

And there seems to be a deliberate unwillingness to deal with long-term issues like climate change and water availability that are just likely to bite all of us sooner or later.

Individuals can do a lot, but at some point you need government to coordinate and these governments are letting us down.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

A little. But I'm trying not to, because all my life I've been told the world was about to end -- we will be nuked by these people, we will die of that disease, we will be drowned in rising floodwaters, we will die of our own poisons, we will be crushed to death by our own tyrannical government, we will starve in our own collapsing economy. And. And it's not that I think that it's wrong, that the dangers we face aren't real. But I see in myself, and in people my own age, an... apocalypse fatigue. Why bother trying? The planet we were handed is irreparably broken; it has been since before we were conceived. Why bother trying? It's all gone and done with. All there is left is to dance in the ashes, and drink and be merry, and die.

It's paralyzing.

So I reject it. We may be sliding into the abyss, but nonetheless I reject that, because it kills my hope, and hope is the only thing I have left. I don't want to shrug, with my generation, and say: it's ruined, there's nothing I can do. I want to say: it's bad, but we can fix it.

I know it's bad. But I need to believe it's not hopeless.

[liadan-m.livejournal.com]

yes. I'm having to sell the house.

[pameladean]

I feel that way often. Things are actually okay on a very local level, it's just that if anything much goes wrong, they won't be any more. And in the larger world, things are going wrong at an alarming rate.

P.

[flourish.livejournal.com]

Yes.

I'm really grateful that my work is paid for by grants which aren't going to go away due to economic downturns, but I am kind of afraid that Mr Flourish won't be able to find a job (his degree is in economics) and I'll end up supporting us on my (grad student's) stipend. Which would be possible, especially if I can get a job as a Resident Assistant (dorm mom), or if we can live with his folks - but I really never planned for it, and certainly on that amount we couldn't even start addressing things like educational debt.

I've been hearing awful comparisons to 1929. I am honestly terrified.

[aaoconnor.livejournal.com]

Sliding I could almost deal with but it's the horrible feeling that the people who are supposed to be able to fix it are actually skating ahead of us down the slopes with brooms like some nightmarish version of curling that gets to me...

[kaylarudbek.livejournal.com]

Yes, I am as well (both spouse and myself out of work, me laid off and he just graduated from school, interviews for me but no offers yet). And the news just makes it worse and worse.

[joelrosenberg.livejournal.com]

Many people are. That's how we got what amounts to a "run on the bank" that sank a couple of major financial institutions, just over the past few days.

Alas, I doubt that we've hit bottom; there's going to be a fair amount of herd panic behavior today, in the stock market, and that's going to have negative consequences for just about everybody who isn't in a position to make a lot of money by short selling. (Which is to say: just about everybody.)

[(Anonymous)]

Reading everyone's comments makes me sad. Yes, there are problems, but there have always been problems. Look at all the good things in your life and realize how blessed you are. It's what I do when things seem bad. The country is having a hard time of things, but it's been much worse before and there were good times after it. Money is only money. If you run out and have to sell your house or move someplace else, it's tough, but your children and husband are with you and you can make things better.

I have been through a tornado and dealt with our home being ruined and our cars being totaled, but no one was hurt and we got through it. Try to be hopeful and work towards the changes you can make.

Wishing you joy and hope.

Heather

[skg.livejournal.com]

It is scary, particularly when we have a VP candidate who expects the End of Days within her lifetime. Is this it?

There are some serious problems with our financial institutions that have been if not created by then certainly contributed to by the deregulation the current government has supported/implemented. The mortgage crisis should never have happened. It should never have been allowed to happen.

Argh. I feel sick.

[skg.livejournal.com]

And AIG today--egads!