VenusHalley, I just wanted to thank you for your post, don't know if you even read this thread anymore, I just happened to sign in now and saw it, and started laughing almost hysterically. I've been through the same experience, it's hard to explain to people who haven't been through it, what it does to your sense of self, sense of the world, when what was up is suddenly down, and you feel like you helped to bring it down, because you were convinced it was right and righteous. Time's gone by, and the world seems to have gotten crazier, more cruel, much less hopeful. I, for one, feel like I am living a third or a fourth life. You're right, extreme social turmoil made us (or me, at least) hypersensitive to news, politics, when other people can just say "ok, that's very sad" and stay emotionally uninvolved...