Why Angry?

It occurs to me there is a connection between those Americans who are angry and the blog piece I wrote about losing control of one's life to Alzheimer’s.

Perhaps those Americans who protest vaccines and masks are also angry about losing control. Why do they think that way? Because nothing is the way it used to be. The rules about the world are changing and change is challenging. Writing from earthquake country, I know that when the very ground shifts beneath you, a kind of panic sets in. Your anchoring frame of reference is gone and you feel adrift. As in Alzheimer’s, what you thought of as real and solid and true, isn’t any more. It is logical to feel anger at whomever you can blame. In a real earthquake we can only shake our hand at the gods, or God, or Mother Nature. But when it comes to human-created environments, it’s natural to seek the people or organizations responsible for taking away your sense of stability.

It is natural to protect our tribe and blame Outsiders for our troubles.  

When jobs are lost, or a pandemic strikes, we look for someone to blame, the Boss, the Company, Automation, Immigrants, Politicians (of any stripe), Racism, China. Someone must be held accountable for the loss, for the upheaval, for the instability. It is much easier to blame those who are not like us, those whose faces don’t resemble our family, our tribe. 

Even if they look like members of our tribe, those who don’t think like us can also be looked down on as Outsiders. If we start excluding those who don’t think like us, act like us, talk like us, walk like us, run like us, eat like us, play like us . . . the circle of our lives closes in so that we narrow our own choices, constrain our own freedoms, dig our own graves.

What is missing is the recognition that underneath skin color, social manners, political/religious beliefs, food preferences, we are all humans in the same “tribe”. If sad, we cry. If happy, we smile. If hungry, we eat. If thirsty, we drink. If cut, we all bleed red blood.

So what do we do with the frustration, the anger at the changes around us? How do we regain a feeling of control over our lives? How can we do that without endangering our fellow human beings?

 

Pandemic Still Here!

October 2021

By this time we thought we’d be finished with the pandemic, back to normal, on track, in the groove, dating, dancing, shopping, celebrating, all the things we’ve missed for the last eighteen plus months. Jeesh!

Of course, we who have done everything we’ve been asked, can’t help blame those who deliberately don’t. Common sense seems to have been deserted by some. It’s political, but not Republican vs Democrat. I know plenty of Republicans who have followed the science, have worn the masks, have eagerly sought vaccinations and now boosters when eligible.

There is a subset of Americans who are angry. I’m not sure why they are angry, or at what. Do they even know? Certain media outlets foment the anger so that their followers will keep tuning in, responding, spreading the hatred and anger. In doing so they help keep those advertising dollars pouring in. Why the anger? What do these Angry Americans think they will accomplish by ignoring health guidelines? They obey traffic rules, they adhere to other regulations. Why choose this dangerous way to focus their anger?

There is no incentive for these media outlets and their mouthpieces to stop. They don’t believe what they are promoting, but if they are exposed they scream “Fake News” and their followers believe every word. 

Deathbed conversions by formerly Angry American ring hollow. It’s too little, too late for their families, their friends, and for the many unknown people they might have infected as they coughed and laughed and shouted their way through society.

It feels good to vent; I get that. But vent when you are causing damage to your fellow human beings? Ignore the restrictions and vaccines when it means taking a chance on incubating the next Covid variant? Ignoring distancing and masks when it means taking a chance on infecting others? Taking a chance on prolonging the pandemic? That’s not only dangerous and frustrating, it’s childish. The anti-mask, anti-vaccine temper tantrums are, frankly, embarrassing to witness coming from adults.

To those Angry Americans who scream about “my freedom” I say, It’s not about YOU. It’s about others. If you don’t care about the people around you, go live off the grid where you will cause no harm. If you want to stay in society, then please:

Grow Up!