if it destroys the retail investors confidence, that's a GOOD thing.
give it a year or two, and then the pros will start slowly buying things. the cycle goes roughly "gotta own stocks forever", then "no problem, i'm in this long term" to "man, i hope these stocks go up" to "i hate stocks, never want them again, SELL!!!!!".
it's probably exacerbated a bit because of hedge funds being in there as well, but c'est la vie. clear the garbage out of the system.
i unfortunately jumped in a little in one of our long term accounts (got a few between me, wife, kids). i'm looking to put some more on in a crash scenario monday/tuesday.
i'm NOT a good trader in crashes, so i won't be trading today (luxury as doing this on my own), but that's the way i see things.