I was just reading the current issue of What’s Next, which I recommend, by the way, and ran into this gem:
“In closing it is probably worth mentioning Elizabeth Kuber-Ross’s five point model of how people deal with death. Stage 1 is disbelief, stage 2 is yearning, stage 3 is anger, stage 4 is depression and stage 5 is acceptance. Is it possible that societally (in the West) we are looking at what we think is an abyss (i.e. economic recession, global warming, the rise of China and so on) and are reacting in exactly the same way as if we were facing terminal illness or the death of a loved one. We are currently in the collective anger stage, falling into depression. But soon we will adjust and accept whatever the new normality is.”
Now that is an exciting observation. What is scary is that the depression stage is often associated with suicide.
Some feedback on this would be appreciated.
Don’t forget the Common Ground Contest that is going on for the next couple of months!
Anthony Stevens' Weblog 
I have been told that Kubler-Ross’s 5 stages of death is also a useful model for cancer patients; the book is on my reading list for this year. IMO sometimes suicide seems like the coward’s way out; you don’t want to deal with the mess your life is so you just take yourself off the stage, leaving a lot of pain and suffering and a possibly even worse mess behind you. This does not apply in cases of voluntary euthanasia due to terminal illness.
Are we, as a society, about to commit suicide? Probably not, every society at every point in history has always had its Cassandras. Will the America of 10 years from now look different than the America today? I sure hope so. 305 million people, plus all the people who still want to come here because, even with all our problems, the USA still sucks less than where they’re from, well that’s a lot of social inertia. I’ve got a bumper sticker that says Change Is Inevitable, Growth Is Optional. We’ll see what happens.
It would be nice to think we were at stage 4 but I suspect most of us – in the context of the current global crisis – are at stage 1.
http://blog.matthewcain.co.uk/why-are-we-so-angry/