The U.S. is a Horribly Haunted and Dysfunctional Nation

Something highly strange and ominous is happening here — and rapidly destroying our society

“If there’s something strange in your neighborhood,

Who you gonna call?

… Ghostbusters!

If there’s something weird And it don’t look good, Who you gonna call?”

From the theme song for “Ghostbusters”

Ever since Donald Trump burst onto the American political scene in 2015, we’ve collectively experienced an ominous, frightening rise in ethnic hatreds, racism, bullying, paranoia, irrationality, and all manner of craziness and violence — all over the country.

I’ve been struggling to understand this pattern, and exactly why it’s been growing so fast and intensifying.

It’s mystifying, inexplicable — and terrifying.

But this morning I had a curious ‘revelation.’ I found myself humming the old theme song from the film “Ghostbusters” in my head … and then I was slammed by a stark realization. I suddenly ‘got’ that the U.S. and its people are horribly haunted.

“There’s something weird,” for sure …“and it don’t look good.”

The vast haunted house that is the U.S.A.

Today’s U.S.A. resembles a vast, continent-wide haunted house. Maybe it’s just my imagination (not really), but it sure seems like ALL of the United States’ racist crap, genocidal origins, ecological destructiveness, denialism, and intense bad karma are now coming home to roost.

We’re haunted by all the unresolved, long-term issues related to slavery and our continuing mistreatment of Blacks and other darker-skinned peoples.

We’re haunted by our long-term genocide of the Native Americans, and by millions of their restless, angry spirits.

We’re haunted by the lawless, selfish ‘outlaw spirit’ of the Wild West — and our continuing, mad love affair with guns … and more guns.

We’re haunted by unresolved issues, denial, and major PTSD in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic that killed over 1.15 million Americans.

We’re haunted by media companies and Internet sites that freely spread lies, subvert the truth, and promote partisan rage and sedition.

We’re haunted by an ex-president who lies like others breathe, refuses to accept the results of the 2020 election, fomented an insurrection, continues to spread lies and incite violence … and now continues to torture us with his creepy, nightmarish ‘I’m-running-for-president-again! Nyah, nyah!’ presidential campaign.

We’re haunted by tens of millions of brainwashed, radicalized ‘conservatives’ who spew anti-government hatred and racist lies, and embrace right-wing violence — yet believe they are fine, law-abiding ‘patriots.’

We’re haunted by our unfulfilled dream of ‘liberty and justice for all,’ and our broken promise of ‘equal opportunity for all.’

We’re haunted by an accelerating collapse of reason, morality, common sense, compassion, and cooperation.

I WISH we could just call in the Ghostbusters, and have them rid us of these malevolent beings, trends, and forces. I deeply wish it was that easy.

But we’re not that lucky — or that wise. Because all across the U.S., we’re still voluntarily enabling or even promoting all the creeps, ghouls, bad actors, seditionists, and racist freaks who are tearing our society apart.

Rising greed, racism, and misogyny

I used to be a semi-hopeful believer in the possibility of American progress. I used to think that we had truly ‘rounded the corner’ on racism and widespread hate — after all, not long ago we elected a Black president twice! — and that our society was finally seeing the light and choosing a more positive, more compassionate path.

Holy crap, was I wrong!

Over the past decade, the greed-heads, racists, and self-centered, misogynistic creeps have poured out of the woodwork — and have gradually been taking over. Worse, it’s been happening and increasing all over the world, not just here.

What’s causing this maelstrom of craziness and ‘evil’ behavior?

Still, the questions remain: what precipitated such a widespread, rapid rise in overt negative, even violent, human attitudes and behaviors? What caused such a rapid-fire collapse of social mores, moral guidelines, and morality itself? Why is this terrible maelstrom of craziness and ‘evil’ behavior afflicting us now?

Clearly, there are many diverse factors to consider, but I think that four powerful trends may be the primary causes — and these trends all support and amplify each other, so the end result is not merely additive, it’s more like a geometric progression.

It’s not simply 2+2+2+2 = 8, it’s much more like 2x4x8x16 = 1024! The difference is bone-chilling … and truly horrifying.

Here are the four primary factors that I’ve identified:

#1: Human overpopulation is straining the ‘carrying capacity’ of the planet, and in some areas has already blown way past that point. Attempts to rein in population growth have gone nowhere, except in China (with its 1-child policy, which is now being loosened). Some prominent thinkers claim that it’s not a problem, since our fertility rates and birth rates are coming down — but they ignore the fact that overall world population is still rising fast. (From 1974–75, world population rose by 74 million … and yet in 2023–2024 it also rose by about 74 million in one year — which means that the yearly increase has stayed about the same despite falling birth rates, due to ongoing, steady increases in world population.)

Plus, they conveniently forget the all-important fact that world population has more than doubled over just the past 50 years (1974-present)!

This rapid rise in population is a crucial factor because it also indicates a parallel, rapid rise in industrialization, shipping, consumption, and avid consumerism, all over the globe … which in turn leads directly to over-consumption of resources and the rapid depletion of many finite resources such as wood and fresh water. Our chaotic, out-of-control growth simply can’t continue ‘as is’ — for it’s already crashing into an immovable, unyielding barrier: the Earth’s carrying capacity.

#2: Our out-of-control growth, when combined with our total reliance on fossil fuels and the plastics derived from them, has fueled massive global warming and climate disruption. Although most ‘advanced’ nations have known about our climate impacts for many decades, we have not made much progress in adopting truly ‘green’ technologies and modes of production — and have consistently failed to fulfill our own climate-change-mitigation agreements.

Even now, after decades of toothless, useless agreements, our planet’s CO2 and methane levels keep rising, year after year. This is a crucial issue because climate disruption is weakening or overwhelming an already over-stretched global ecosystem, as well as human agriculture and supply chains all across the globe — and it’s clear now that climate disruption is not receding, but instead will keep intensifying for the foreseeable future. Thus, there is NO WAY our current civilization can persist much longer, in its current destructive form.

#3: On some deep inner level, all of us — even the climate change deniers — feel or sense that our civilization is a collapsing ‘house of cards.’ We all feel it, deep down inside; by now this knowledge has seeped into our ‘collective unconscious,’ so our outward, manic denial of these truths, and of our own inner knowing, is making us increasingly batshit c-r-a-z-y.

But because awareness of these terrible trends is still mainly unconscious, vast throngs of desperate people all around the globe are starting to ‘act out’ in anger and express their rising fear and frustration outwardly. Like hungry rats piled almost on top of each other in a too-small cage, we’re all freaking out and starting to condemn, hate, and attack each other.

#4: Then, into this ‘perfect storm’ of ecological mayhem, societal denial, and rising hate crashed the perfect, terrible accelerant: Donald Trump. His influence has been SO intense and so horrendous that it’s hard to wrap our heads around it. But if one thing’s become obvious over the past 8 years of ‘Trumpism,’ it’s this: on a deep, primal level he has given full, leering permission for Americans, and people everywhere, to be their worst selves and to give free rein to their most hateful, racist, and self-centered desires and beliefs.

With his election, we opened Pandora’s Box wide — and kept it open — and now all its hateful, ugly, and dangerous contents have been loosed on our nation and the world. And Trump, of course, is reveling in his vast power and influence … and may well become our next elected (or even non-elected, since he’ll do anything to reclaim the White House) president. He is no doubt beaming with narcissistic pride that his viciousness, amorality, vengefulness, and lack of compassion have now infected tens of millions of Americans. Way to go, U.S.A.!

Now we’re all ‘riders on the shitstorm’

So, here we are. Here we all are, in the midst of a slow-motion train wreck and a looming worldwide disaster. As I cheerfully put it in an earlier article, “Welcome to the shit-storm!”

Freakishly, we’re all stuck here on an anguished planet, in an anguished, ailing society. We’re all just stuck with the accelerating consequences of the above four patterns, interacting with and intensifying each other.

As I wrote at the end of the same article: for the foreseeable future we’re all forced to be reluctant ‘riders on the shit-storm.’

As for all the crazies, bullies, racists, denialists, moronic ghouls, and pathological liars who are haunting us and wrecking our society … well, where the hell are the friggin’ Ghostbusters and Hatebusters when we really, really need them?!