Why Is Everyone So Angry? Why Am I So Angry?
Let's start with the second question. I am angry because I allow myself to be, even though anger clouds judgment and causes stress. People disappoint me by not doing the right thing. Instead of telling myself to have a different reaction, like disappointment or resignation, I choose angry. The right thing is not to get angry, so I will acknowledge the irony.
To a lesser extent, I am angry because so many other people are. I tend to react to anger with anger. When I hear an angry jerk spouting nonsense, I want to get in his or her face and reduce the jerk to tears with my withering commentary. Instead, I should be asking why he or she is so angry, and why is he or she engaging in the same type of behavior that is being condemned.
I believe that a major reason for today's anger is that anger motivates and makes a person more subject to manipulation. Politicians want you to be angry enough to send money, vote, and make other people you know similarly angry. The media wants to make you angry so you keep coming back to that outlet as a source of information. Very few commentators talk or sound like Mr. Rogers, and if they did, they would have lousy ratings.
People say they want to hear positive things, but negative things are easier to sell. By the time Apollo 13 went up, we had landed on the moon twice, and nobody except the most diehard NASA freaks, like myself, were interested in the third mission. At least not until there was an explosion and the three astronauts lives were placed in more immediate danger. No one wanted them to die, but by increasing the likelihood of that, the interest level shot through the roof.
Anger and negativity go hand in hand. You cannot discuss abortion by rationally debating the pros and cons. You must couch it in terms of baby killing or controlling a woman's body. While I am generally pro choice, I am not radically pro choice, and I think the pro life folks have the more emotional argument. Pictures of dismembered fetuses are more disgusting than pictures of women who brought their pregnancy to term with horrible consequences. In any case, politicians must make pro choice and pro life voters angry enough to send money and vote.
The First Amendment makes it unlikely that we can control the tendency of the media to stoke the anger of the people. Plus, controlling the media is a horrible idea, unless I am the one doing it. No, we must ourselves stop being angry and react better to information designed to manipulate us into a fervor. I believe it will allow individuals to make better decisions.
