The crisis.
You have eloquently described my process of moving from a jingoistic view of the US and world, as currently exemplified by the Conservatives on these Boards, to the old, battered cynic I am now.
I would say that current frustration is as energetic as my former jingoism, and the process of disappointment was not as long or slow as I would have wished.
It happens when one ignores the words of the leaders and watches the actions of the nations. And is inevitable to the person who moves out of an adolescent black-and-white view of the world to one of varying shades of gray and then through to the real rainbow, wherein all societies and cultures can be said to have their own inestimable values.
Or they get overthrown from within.
Arf