Political Anger for Its Own Sake Does Not Solve Anything ─ It Shuts Down the Mind, Making Constructive Change Difficult

© 2010 Peter Free

 

21 October 2010

 

Being angry over America’s perceived decline is appropriate, but indulging anger without thinking about better ways to do things is not

 

The United States’ mid-term election mood appears to be angry, but devoid of realistic ideas for fixing problems.

 

I am anticipating an election that gets us still more of the argumentatively incompetent avoidance that got us here.

 

Eventually some of us are going to have to break Denial’s Tantrum.

 

Columnist Gail Collins quoted Alaskan reporter Michael Carey, who summed the situation with humor

 

For an example of rage, take:

 

Alaska, an extremely angry state that hateshateshates all forms of government, despite the fact that 40 percent of its economy comes from government aid, and the state’s oil-revenue-sharing program gives families thousands of dollars in payments every year.

“Unemployment has never been lower; there is no housing crisis; banks are solvent. We just got Permanent Fund Checks — and, boy, are we pissed off!” said Michael Carey, an Anchorage Daily News columnist.

Really, people, rage never gets you anything but overturned garbage cans and broken windows. If you want to do rage, go to France.

 

© 2010 Gail Collins, The Fury Failure, New York Times (20 October 2010) (paragraph split)

 

There a couple of nuggets in Collin’s observations ─ hypocritical libertarianism and Americans acting like allegedly spoiled French people

 

(1) Americans ignore Government’s contribution to their well being and rail endlessly and witlessly about perceived governmental intrusions into this and that.

 

Yet, when politicians try to implement needed fiscal reforms, the same libertarian-wannabes sob about the slimming of the Government’s money-delivery chain.

 

“We don’t care that the boat is sinking,” their behavior implies, “just keep us fat, dumb, and entertained.”

 

Hypocrisy seems to ride most comfortably on the shoulders of those who profit the most from Government’s largesse.

 

 

(2) Collins’ example of apparently self-destructive French rage is well taken.

 

Americans like to despise the allegedly effete French.  This week, significant numbers of the French have been in their streets (New York Times) (Washington Post), protesting against a proposed, seemingly trivial increase in the retirement age.

 

 

A non-involved observer cannot help but contrast:

 

(a) these French people’s unhelpful response to the exercise of arguably responsible leadership on the part of the French government,

 

as against

 

(b) the (thus far) stiff upper lip determination of the British to do something effective about their ailing economy and its potentially miserable future.

 

Oh my gosh, we’ve become like the French mob?

 

The American electorate has been acting more like the allegedly theatrical French mob, than the (so far) quietly courageous British.

 

The irony is that the French government is trying to act proactively.  Our American one is not.