One person can't. I know. I've tried for 15+years and have failed. I am well into the second generation where kids I put into care years ago are now the abusive parents. In order to change society has to change and how does that happen? We need people to accept that we as a nation have created this monster that lurks in every city and every state. It will take a massive all required educational training. I can go on but that isn't why I'm here.

"Become the change you seek" is the t-shirt slogan....

We can not change anything but our own reactions, is what I've concluded. I try not to be th ekind of a-hole who hurt me, and I try to donate time and resources to those in need (assuming I have resources to spare). It will never change quickly. Societies and species evolve over *time*. So I hang onto my nave happy-skippy hope that someday, it'll be less of a mess.

Useless, I know, but this is all I have.

It's true that things change slowly. Where I hope to do my part - when and if I am ever healed enough to be up to it - is in the denial department. I think denial in society, like denial in families, is what allows abuse to thrive. Holding on to idealized images of what family is, what a mother is, what a father is, what they would or wouldn't do to their own kids - there's still a lot of denial out there. Believing in authority, abdicating to authority. And then the objectification and sexualization of children - the entertainment industry broadcasts it and denies it in the same breath. So my ambition is to say "The Emperor has no clothes" wherever and whenever I can. I think we will all be in a position to tell the truth because we have learned other ways besides denial to survive this stuff.

I was about to pull out my soap box but I'm too tired to climb up on it. We as a society have chosen certain fundamental basis of our way of life. The rights of an individual are highly protected. Our criminal justice system is based upon rehabilitation but offers no rehabilitative services etc. Unless there is motivation to change things system wide it won't happen. Blah blah blah.

There is no shortage of world-wide, multicultural evidence -both current and historical- that you can create walking wounded on a massive scale.

Every scrap of evidence I have found indicates that healing can only be done one person at a time.

I go with Mother Teresa's policy. "Just do what is in front of you."

Here's a website (opened to a page of encouraging news) that you might find helpful. I do.

http://www.d2lblog.com/category/news-and-events/

I know. I fantasize that heaven is like the bar scene in Star Wars. All kinds of aliens from all kinds of better worlds. They'll tell me how it doesn't have to be like this. That there were many, many more peaceful worlds elsewhere in the universe. They'll say, "congrats for putting up with yours."

Wow, that is a huge topic and one without any answers. Personally I believe a lot of it stems from greet. War is about money, and power. Rape is about power. Poverty is about lack of opportunity to money and power. Mental health is only graining traction now because it is costing so much money.

I agree that our society is off the rails and could be so much more. For me, I am not able to even think about this. I am so messed up and need to get PTSD under control before I take on solving the world's problems. giggle giggle! Seriously, to big a topic for me. I need my self together and that has to be my first priority. This is a new area for me. I thought put myself care at the bottom of the pile for so long. I took on the responsibility to protect soldiers overseas so they could come home to their loved ones. I took it on the responsibility to warn others of the terrorist threat on our soil. I put myself last. No one cared, no one thanked me for my sacrifice. I am now putting myself first, it is a weird feeling, but if I don't believe I am worth it who will? I cannot help anyone if I am sick.

When I am well again, I plan to do some volunteer work with mental health and poverty groups. I have learned a lot through my PTSD journey. It was a real eye opener for me.

I've always sort of felt I came here (again) to fix things. Getting abused and all the associated mental problems it's caused...including becoming a clutch of people inside and fighting severe depression and all...oy!

Instead of fixing things I spend 95% of my energy just surviving. It really ticks me off. This has just not been my incarnation. I mean, I was going to have to keep coming back to fix things anyway, but I feel like I've got so little accomplished.

It's nice that we (in our internal headspace) are at least talking and often working together...that's good progress, I suppose.

I think that...I want to get to the point where I can talk about various sorts of violence and the societal effects as a public speaker. The first step to fixing a problem is ending denial, so...

But...that's just me?
...I'm sort of looking for...some sort of crucial cultural pivot points?
Things where small changes will have far more profound ripple effects over time?
I note our culture rewards zero-sum thinking. One winner, at least one loser. We indoctrinate children to think in those terms, wholesale...
...Human civilization is the exact opposite of a zero-sum endeavor, we all build on the achievements of other humans.

not a sociologist or anthropologist, so I can't answer for the whole of society or the species... But I try to be one drop of clean water in the bucket, so to speak. I can't avoid "tainting" but it comes down to that ripple effect, for me. I do what I can as I can. It's small, but so are neutrinos, and they pass through solid rock. Which comforts *me*, even if that makes no sense to anyone else!