I'm Mad As Hell, and...Oh, Look! A Butterfly!

I'm starting to wonder if I am angry enough to be an American these days...

 

 

I say this as someone who is in their 13th straight month of what I like to call "Outrage Exhaustion".


Politics. I love ya, but you're killing me with the Angry All The Time.

 

 

Like many Americans, I have an internet device epoxy-ed to my left hand. Yes, it is perhaps the sole cause of Outrage Exhaustion. Logically, I know this.


I claim some kind of moral high ground for being fully able to put my phone away when I'm in the company of other humans, but...I'm not in the company of other humans enough to make any significant impact on my screen time. I have a job, but I work at my home office, where the only other "people" have four legs and fur. These co-workers have their own feelings about my internet use, but as luck would have it, they can't lecture me about it as they don't speak English, and I, being a typical American, have not made the effort to learn much of their language.

 

 

(Side note: I decided to learn French. Do cats speak French? It would seem the logical language for the species..)

 

 

What comes with near-constant exposure to "news" and information about the election is what feels like a slow drain of the useful peace-keeping stuff of the mind: Poetry. Photography. Watching the sunset from the lanai over beers while sitting in West Maui. A quiet morning after a fresh snowfall in Minnesota. Justin Currie songs. Beautiful things.  Sure, there are people online who try to post these things, and I try to be one of them. Those people are vastly out-numbered, or perhaps just loudly shouted down, by The Angries yelling about everything and chastising you for NOT BEING ANGRY.

 

 

The Angries. They are pissed off because you think something different from what they think!!!  How dare you think that! GAH!  I'M SO ANGRY!!!

 

 

Confession time: I used to be an Angry and I used to toss out the  Angry Person Catch Phrase, "If you're not mad, you're not paying attention," with some regularity. I also used to drink Michelob. By virtue of not dying, I have matured in so many important ways.

 

 

The Angries...upon initial review you would think that, perhaps like the me of my youth, they just haven't had the life experience or the disappointment one eventually gets from drinking Michelob having everything not go their way for extended periods of time.

 

 

We tell ourselves eventually they will calm into action mode, accept that good things come almost exclusively through (gasp) *work + time*, and become an amazing force for change.

 

 

Angry people become action people! Even I, Angry Grrrrl, eventually replaced my "Screw You!" with a little sign hanging above my desk that reads, "Get To Work! You Aren't Being Paid To Believe In The Power Of Your Dreams!"

 

 

Over time, you come to learn that it's true. You can say, a million, 2 million, or 10 million times, how things should be, and you can wish it as hard as you like, but as you stand by and watch the good thing never materialize, you come to notice that you have to make it happen, or it won't. This happens to people as they...I'm going to use a big word, here...mature.  They get smarter, they use their resources to make change, yada-yada-yada Better World.


So excuse me for asking, but, we've been put on full-blown anger blast for what seems like a hell of a long time now and I want to know just how long The Angries plan to keep this shit up?


How long can people stay mad about politics?

I think we may be close to done. I think...it's going to turn fun, again, soon.

We're living the dream, America.  I am renewed.


Welcome to Decision 2016: Smart-Asses vs Dumb-Asses.