OUR LIVES ARE SO EASY IT'S SCARY?:

"Nerve": Why is America so anxious? (Jacob Sugarman, 3/20/11, Salon)

We don't need a global crisis to be reminded that fear and life in the 21st century seem to go hand in hand. Whether you're a professional basketball player trying to sink a game-winning jump shot in the closing seconds of a playoff game or a lowly journalist scrambling to meet your deadline, chances are your nerves have gotten the best of you at one point or another. You wouldn't be human if they didn't. In fact, fear recognition and the fight-or-flight reflex embedded in our neurochemistry is part of what has enabled our survival and evolution from chest-pounding primates to iPad-wielding bipeds. As we might guess from the endless stream of television commercials for psychopharmaceuticals, Americans have an especially tough row to hoe in the fight against anxiety. Despite our prosperity, statistics show that we're as susceptible to nervous disorders, if not more so, than any nation in the world.

Poll: Most living American Dream (UPI, 3/21/11)

Despite many homes in foreclosure, a high jobless rate and a shaky economy, most U.S. adults say they are living the American dream, a survey indicates.

The Allstate-National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll indicates 59 percent say they are living the American Dream. Seventy-five percent percent surveyed say it is still possible for people like them to achieve the American Dream, which the poll defined as the ability to advance as far as their talents will take them and live better than their parents did.

Survey respondents say after raising a family, owning a home is the second most critical part of the American Dream. Nearly nine out of 10 U.S. homeowners say they would buy their homes again -- even if its value has declined, the survey says.

Posted by oj at March 23, 2011 6:05 AM
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