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That was sure my impression last year when I still had a job. But this confusion is much more complicated I think. I think there are several things going on that paralize people's thoughts. The first is fear. They don't seem to know what to say, think, or feel. They seemed numb to me. I am talking about my former co-workers. I certainly shared that low level, but constant anxiety.
The other thing is I don't think most people have any idea how to get out of the mess. They don't realize it is government's responsibility to manage the political economy and that whole system of policies has broken down and or were destoryed.
After decades of reactionary free market propaganda and practically no exposure to any alternatives, I think most people just go blank.
The problem for the Left is that the progressive history of the US, its activists, writers, artists, music, heros, heroines, and works are erased from public memory. Just about every week I learn some new part of it, or new name, some work I never knew existed.
So, since an American Left narrative is missing, few outside the truly interested ever come across it. This eraser project has always been with us. It was certainly going full bore during the cold war, and had a very profound effect on US intellectual and activist lives.
Just today, I discovered that a lot Hemingway manuscripts, letters, and literary memorabilia were still in Cuba. Kennedy's Bay of Pigs stopped Hemingway from returning after his annual vacation in Idaho. Of course the FBI tracked him every since the 1930s
Now think about that. It's been fifty years since Hemingway left Cuba for a vacation and left some of his manuscripts, house and boat in Cuba. During the Bush years there was a privately funded project to copy and reproduce some of the letters and manuscripts for more public access in the US. The Treasury dept rejected some license application. Finally they relented, but put heavy restrictions on the use of the funding.
Here is a better example Max just posted on Hubert Harrison, Do-it-yourself scholars:
http://paw.princeton.edu/issues/2009/04/22/pages/5110/
It's worth a quick read because it essentially outlines how erasing history works. I am not sure the writers reviewed would agree, but then maybe they haven't thought about it.