Nation must learn we are not helpless

Mental health experts call it “Learned Helplessness.” It is a psychological disorder, as real as a toothache, and, as its name suggests, far more debilitating.

It is seen as an indicator of the onset of depression, a condition suffered by millions, which often cripples them mentally. Depression can be fatal.

Learned Helplessness was first identified about a half-century ago during experiments in which dogs would sit down and whimper rather than try to flee shocks to their feet from electrified flooring. Dogs had learned from experience that they could not escape the pain.

The disorder is all too common in young students who do poorly in a class, say math, and conclude they can never learn that subject. They stop trying — they have learned to be helpless.

Today, Learned Helplessness afflicts the machinations of America’s government and, more insidiously, the electorate, which has come to believe it can do nothing about the mess in high places.

For example: The president of the United States took two hits in a row within an hour more than a week ago, and the result would be his end, or so the newspapers and TV people declared in the ensuing 48 hours.

First, his former campaign chairman was found guilty of eight felonies in federal court and then his longtime lawyer pleaded guilty to paying women to keep quiet about the president’s alleged affairs. The once-loyal lawyer said it was our chief executive who gave the hush money order.

Thundering silence followed.

Nothing happened. There were no condemnations, no calls for reform, no proposals for action from the two branches of Congress, nor from political parties. Moral and religious leaders did not speak up. Law enforcement was as if dormant.

Even the media, after the first flurry of meaningless predictions, had nothing to say because there was nothing to report.

Sure, various individuals and groups proffered bogus, easy-to-dismiss excuses. It was said the Democrats don’t want to act for fear of waking the giant of the president’s base. The Republicans fear losing the forthcoming midterms.

There was no mention of the good of the nation, not even panel discussions about how low bad behavior can go before it is stopped.

Clearly, we as a people had been carefully taught that nothing will change. We just wallow in the silence. We give up.

It is not that we were not forewarned.

Shortly after learning he was suffering from fatal brain cancer, Sen. John McClain stood before the U.S. Senate in the wee hours of the morning and scolded his colleagues, “We are getting nothing done, my friends. We are getting nothing done.”

Now McCain, a great American hero has passed. The nation is in mourning. Many words of tribute will be spoken.

How about truly honoring the late senator with action?