Anger as entertainment

March 26th, 2009 | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) |

I came across this quote the other day, and thought it too good not to post:

If you want to be angry about something, get pissed at a media culture that goes beserk [sic] about bonuses one week and forgets all about them the next. And be worried, quite worried, about a society for whom anger is a form of entertainment.

It’s from Time political columnist Joe Klein’s blog post Populist Rage? …Never Mind, and for some reason it struck a nerve.

Perhaps it’s because I’ve been listening to disproportionate amounts of public radio lately (my iPod died a while back… R.I.P.), but all I heard about last week was the AIG bonuses. Interestingly, the news was originally about the bonuses and how unbelievable/absurd/ludicrous/etc. they were, but then the news subtly shifted from the bonuses themselves to the anger about the bonuses. As I was driving one afternoon, I listened to a debate between two seemingly well-informed people about “how mad” people should be about the bonuses. All I came away with was knowing how mad I was that I had just listened to that segment.

We need to be careful to not take the bait and accept anger as a form of entertainment. Anger can be turned into something useful if it is handled appropriately, but when anger becomes a steady flow of fleeting fads, we become conditioned to be angry at something all the time. Finding this week’s scapegoat won’t make you feel any better, I promise.