Sense of avoidance

Seems to me there is a pervasive sense that we have been avoiding reality as a society, and that there is a sense of guilt, not only fear, that we sort of knew it, that we'd convinced ourselves otherwise, but that it really is the case that our homes and businesses and 401 Ks are not worth quite as much as we thought.  The fire-hose of credit is cinched off for a few days and look what happens, we notice that our lives are pretty much the same as in the 1980s, after all.  What is wealth but the feeling that we have moved forward to new heights?  We kept telling ourselves we had; knowing, with the other half of our brain, that we were not moving to new heights, that the Iraq war bill and massive borrowing were real, that we would have to pay for it all somehow, morally, emotionally, financially, and in getting Miele washing machines.