Trauma is always collective. The way we tend to approach and interpret, diagnose and treat trauma as an individual affliction says more about our values of individualism than about our wisdom. It is true that trauma is experienced and manifests differently in each person. Some are going to be worse affected than others. Some will not appear to be affected at all.
In the case of a natural catastrophe, such as earthquake, fire or flood, everyone is going to be impacted, but only some will exhibit ongoing symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. Others will have internalized it. Some will appear unscathed. It is still my theory that those who are the most generous and caring towards others during times of disaster are also the most likely to pull through unscathed.
There are of course other causes of collective trauma, all of them human-induced violence through war, bombings and acts of terror. I would imagine that the effects would be still more insidious because these are not merely acts of God, therefore there is not the convenient out of having the Almighty to blame. When the affected people unite in common cause and support they are more likely to get through it. I don't think anyone is going to be truly unscathed but by the same token there will be fewer individuals bowed down and psychologically disabled because of trauma.
Then there is the collective trauma that is still developing in western countries, I am thinking particularly of Canada, due to global economic changes and free trade agreements and unfettered global capitalism. This dynamic is still unfolding.
Right now, we have a growing gulf between rich and poor. As our governments have consistently gutted social programs and shredded our social safety net in order to make Canada attractive to foreign investors, this country, notably certain cities, and especially Vancouver, are becoming increasingly unliveable.
Housing costs have vastly outpaced wages. Increasingly people on modest or regular incomes are having trouble living here in Vancouver. They either relocate, or they downsize until there is no option but to couch surf or cope inside a low barrier hostel. This is beginning to happen a lot.
In the meantime, the casualties, perhaps you could say the collateral damage, of this income inequality, are no longer able to cope. They become increasingly susceptible to addictions and mental health crises. It isn't just mental illness that causes homelessness. Being homeless wreaks havoc on people's mental health, for whatever other reason they have become homeless.
Every day we are treated to the spectacle of traumatized grieving individuals sleeping and begging on the sidewalks and we avert our eyes because we know that these people are no different from us and we don't want to be constantly reminded. This makes us harden our conscience, make excuses, blame the victim for not working hard enough, for not trying hard enough, for being so openly traumatized and destroyed and making us have to witness it.
We all share the blame for the governments we elect into power and our refusal to question their stupid, short-sighted and mean-spirited legislations that result in growing economic inequality, unaffordable cities, and biblical proportions of homelessness.
By creating homelessness, we have also dehumanized the homeless. And this dehumanizes us. We participate in the collective trauma of social and economic inequality by turning our eyes away, by blaming the victim. Growing cold towards the most vulnerable is a great spiritual price to pay. It also makes it easier for us to turn against others, to become even more selfish, more egoistical and more self-destructive.
Have any of you noticed how much alcoholic beverages are being more promoted and pushed on the public than ever? Everything from craft beer to high grade Scotch. This has deteriorated into a culture of alcoholism, making many well-heeled middle class people every bit the vile addicts as homeless people smoking crack or shooting up in the alley. Some of you are just better dressed and smell better, as well as being unbearably smug.
This is all unacceptable. And what is even more unacceptable is the way so many of us are accepting homelessness and inequality as the new normal. This should not be tolerated. Otherwise, we will simply go on treating the homeless like subhuman garbage while withdrawing increasingly from one another. Have any of you ever tried to figure out why Vancouver is such an unfriendly city? It might have something to do with the way we treat our most marginalized, traumatized and vulnerable citizens. We are dehumanizing ourselves through neglect of our brothers and sisters and we are all sinking into the same psychic miasma of what could be a very long and very grave situation of collective trauma.
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