There’s a famous bumper sticker that says:
If You’re Not Angry, You’re Not Paying Attention
The slogan is timeless, but it has never been more timely. American citizens have a right to be angry. And, while we are famous for paying little attention, we do manage to pay some attention. We pay enough, anyway, that a growing number of Americans are seething mad. To me, it’s a sign of three things. The news keeps getting worse, the press is starting to report the news more honestly, and more people are paying attention. The result? As George Will says, “…everywhere there is the histrionic fury of ordinary people venting in everyday conversations.” But George Will, while very handsome, is not very bright.
Many people who loathe George W. Bush have adopted what [anthropologist] Peter Wood describes as “ecstatic anger as a mode of political action.” Anger often is, Wood says, “a spectacle to be witnessed by an appreciative audience, not an attempt to win over the uncommitted.”
Maybe. But anger is also the rational response to a government that fucks up everything it touches, has no respect for American institutions, and treats thinking people with contempt. George Will goes on to say that Jackie Robinson and George Washington were better people than we (who could argue?) because they mastered anger rather than being mastered by anger. That’s all very cute, but the bottom line is that George Will doesn’t like people that don’t like our President.
The anger directed at Bush today, like that directed at Clinton during his presidency, luxuriates in its own vehemence.
Today, many people preen about their anger as a badge of authenticity: I snarl, therefore I am. Such people make one’s blood boil.
So, we make George Will angry, too. And he makes us angry because he is such a mendacious charlatan and suck-up to Republican power. More Americans are angry because they have a right to be angry. Open this morning’s papers and read. If you don’t come away angry, you have the reading comprehension skills of a first-grader. And I don’t need an anthropologist to explain that to me.
the problem is people arent angry enough.
people like george will are too comfortable to be angry….take away his big house(s) and health care and let him struggle like too many in this country….make him live in a place like north camden and make him choose food or prescription meds this month and he will change his tune real fast.
failing that lets just get him a good unlubricated ass fucking so he knows how the rest of us feel, metaphorically speaking.
angry he lied about a blow job is not the same as angry he fucked up the katrina response, and lied us into a war for profit.
buggers
I saw the two of them on TV just this morning. Bush I and Clinton that is. They were promoting http://www.ready.gov.
Ready for what? The completion of their plan to destroy America?
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=2229511748333360205
This explains it all.
http://www.eugenemallove.org/
In the end it’s not about liking this one or that one it’s about the discovery of why it will very soon end.
George Will makes the assumption that we actually enjoy our anger, depression, and frustration. Me I just want some fraction of my country back. I find it very hard to live in a world where the leadership of my country is bus willfully destroying the most important element of my nation of birth. The parts I grew up to believe were the most important to our national character, the parts that I am the most proud of.
I am indeed quite angry, but I do not enjoy that anger. I certainly do want to erosion of my country to end, hopefully before it is too late for America to recover.
well said.
Yes, the people are angry & that translates into a lot of stuff that may or may not be helpful. I am one who “luxuriates” because, frankly, there is little to make me hopeful. George Will is cute, he likes the Cubs for Christ’s sake, too cute by a mile. (Remember, the liberals went for the St. Louis Cardinals, while Will, in his genius, went for the Cubs.) Yeah, that’s cute. Anyway, back to anger. Anger doesn’t do much for a person’s nerves or heart of stomach, so some of us try to see a little light somewhere, like the recently passed bill that supports the war until 2008. & of course, we wind up pissed off at each other for various reasons, none helpful, particularly when the leaders are pissed at the regular folks for not following or not bowing. Be that as it may, since American politics & politicians no longer respond to the people’s views, we on the left are supposed to find solace in half-baked news, & told, like the Roman Catholic priest when faced with a congregation who supports birth control, to just offer it up. Yeah, well.
a display as warning and prelude to an actual ass-kicking.
“Anger often is, Wood says, “a spectacle to be witnessed by an appreciative audience, not an attempt to win over the uncommitted.”
This is George Bush’s anger, when he lectures & belittles Congress. He’s playing to the 29% – the Zell Miller’s & Joe Lieberman’s of the world.
It is not the righteous anger of, for example, Patrick Leahy threatening White House officials with subpoenas:
“The reason I want to do it under oath..remember in the Valerie Plame thing, nobody had anything to do with this. Noboby outed her name. Nobody said she was a CIA operative, nobody at the White House did, until some of these people were under oath and then we find out, gosh, they did. It’s amazing how that focuses ones attention.”
And that’s a comment best delivered with an angry snarl.
People are angry these days because of frustration. They know there is something terribly wrong in the White House. They know they screwed up when half voted in W and the republican congress and supported this war.
guilt and frustration.
And they cannot get these people out now that they understand what is happening. Something like 65% wish this administration would leave now.
People are more interested in the primaries because they want change and an end to this era and they have someone to look forward to who they feel will save this country.
They are tired of hate politics and smash mouth politics. They want something better.
And they want a say.
I had alot of anger when I discovered blogs. I found the left side of news and opinion and I could vent.
You guys have a great deal to do with us keeping our sanity by allowing us to discuss politics and the anger right now that the republicans foster.
“ecstatic anger”? I wish! My anger is a sick, roiling, upchucking kind of anger. Will is a pedestrian writer at best and a goon at worst.