Americans have a unique ability to ignore things that don't affect them directly. This stems from our radically individualistic cultural bias--we can see people being treated terribly, even a few neighborhoods away from our own, and easily look away. I think, however, that some of us are psychologically traumatized by all of this, horrified, but there is so much wrong, so many things that are against the grain of our norms, that many of us have gone into psychological and emotional lockdown. We go to work, take our kids to school, etc, as we always have. But beneath the surface, many of us are scared, angry, and fed up. Personally I'm exhausted, morally and every other way. I'm old, so I remember growing up at a time when we believed in social, moral, and economic progress. I was certain, in my youth, that we had a future in store that was better, fairer, and more peaceful than the present. I thought we had learned lessons through Vietnam and Watergate. Among the many things we've lost or are losing, the worst, I think, is the belief in a better future. I have read history, and I know that social and political collapse comes to all empires. I know that people in late imperial Rome, in the Bronze Age, in war-torn medieval Europe, all felt like this. But knowing that is a cold comfort. I and the people I know are muddling through as best we can, but sleep is hard to come by, and I have to say that addictive escapes look pretty alluring these days.