Anger is an addictive emotion. It feels good to be angry at something. Doubly so if the anger is justified (and, lets face it, most of the time we all think it’s justified). When that anger is paired with a cause—when you’re not alone in your fury—it can become intoxicating. Like every other drug, though, too much anger is poisonous. It clouds the mind and corrupts the soul. There is nothing healthy about being angry all the time. After a while, the angry man becomes a bitter and hollow man. His good will becomes a victim of his worst impulses. Take a charitable, generous man, a truly good man, set his soul on fire, and watch as he turns into a cold shell of himself.
For years now America has been the angry man. Our soul is burning, our good will almost spent. And the number of victims our anger generates continues to climb.
The examples are too numerous to count, so I’ll start with two. We all know who David Hogg and Kyle Kashuv are. They’re lives are irreparably harmed by the tragedy they’ve experienced. In a healthy society, they would have been left to grieve alone. Their grief would have been private, and their futures left to make for themselves. Alas, we do not live in a healthy society, though. The culture war has so divided us, and grown to such a proportion, that all tragedies must be made into new battlegrounds. This war of ours requires avatars. Hogg and Kashuv fit the bill. It doesn’t matter that they chose to take on their roles; they should not have been put in a position to do so. They should not have been asked to take on those roles. Their private lives were already marked by this tragedy; now, no matter how far they go, their public lives will be the same.
I hope they are both successful in whatever they choose to do. I wish the best of them, because I cannot imagine what they have gone through. But they represent the worst of this corruptive anger that has taken hold of our country. They were classmates. They shared in the most tragic of circumstances. But, because of our righteous anger, because of this monster we’ve created, they were asked to stand opposite each other. It’s our fault. And it will continue.
There are other examples, but the story is all the same. We uphold, promote, and defend people—some victims of tragedy, some celebrities, others just in the right place at the right time—we think represent us. We seek champions for our culture war—and in doing so, we create victims. In some cases, we create martyrs.
I don’t have a solution to this problem. I don’t know what the answer is. But I can tell you this; all hope is not lost yet. Just as the angry man is left hollow by his fury, so can he rebuild his good graces over time. All it takes is one moment of reflection, one deep breath, one split second where the man chooses to let go of his anger. After that, healing can begin.
Breathe, America. For all that is good and true about you, please, breathe.
Why is Marco Rubio giving a League of the South kid the Jussie hero treatment?
Is that conservatism?
Why is Marco Rubio giving a League of the South kid the Jussie hero treatment?
Is that conservatism?