What’s with all the anger?

Everyone’s so angry in the glowing box and in the talking box and in the boxes on the political pages and websites. Why are they all so angry?



I think it’s because other people disappoint. Every other person is unable to make my life right. Only I can work on fixing my life, and only I am able to accept the responsibility for my life, because only I have ultimate power over my life. With great power comes great responsibility.

If my life is not what I wish it was, only I can change that.

If my life is not what I wish it was, day after day, the only one to blame, really, is me.

This is a hard fact to face when my life is not what I wish it was.

So it’s human nature to blame someone else. This creates a conflict. And a good dramatic conflict makes interesting news.

Conflict makes people uncomfortable, and discomfort can eventually lead to anger.

And angry people make good television, good radio and a good read.

I think maybe that’s why it seems everyone on TV and radio and generally in the news is angry lately.

And it must equate to the politicians that it’s important to get people angry, so that the media will pay attention, because angry people are newsworthy.

So they make inflammatory statements. “My opponent is just not wrong or mistaken, my opponent is morally wrong and unethical.”

This is not Republican versus Democrat versus libertarian versus green versus individualist versus statist. This is good versus evil. When the conflict is stated in those terms, it’s easy to get angry. Because the threat that evil may triumph makes anyone angry.

So the ads are designed to make you angry. If you believe what the ads say, you get angry at the ads’ target. If you don’t believe what the ads say, you get angry at the ads themselves. In either case you get angry.

And when you’re angry, you make the political operatives happy. Because they want you to be angry. They depend on you to be angry. An emotional person is more easily persuaded.

Here’s what I think. I think my happiness is in my hands. I think the responsibility for my life is mine.

I don’t think my life will get better if a Democrat wins the next election. I don’t think my life will get better if a Republican wins the next election. I think my life will get better when I stop believing that the Democrats or the Republicans have the power to make my life better.

I think my life will get better when I stop waiting for the next election and just get down to the business of making my life better. I think my life will get better when I stop waiting for any politician or corporation or anyone at all besides myself to do something to make my life better.

My happiness does not depend on the right president. My welfare does not depend on an external force of any kind. If my life is not what I wish it was, only I can change that.

Your happiness does not depend on the right president. Your welfare does not depend on any external force. Your life will not get better if someone else is running the government. If your life is not what you wish it was, only you can change that.

Don’t believe it? That’s because you let someone else get you angry.