Interesting article at Esquire:
LET’S BEGIN WITH THE BIG REVEALS: Half of all Americans are angrier today than they were a year ago. White Americans are the angriest of all. And black Americans are more optimistic about the future of the country and the existence of the American dream. There are depths and dimensions, dark corners and subtle contours to our national mood, and setting aside the issue of who actually has a right to be angry and about what—these pages are neutral territory; everyone is allowed their beef—we found three main factors shaping American rage:
EXPECTATIONS… EMPATHY… EXPERIENCE.
The polling strikes me as kind of bullshit, since it mostly polled leftists, based on how much they cared about blacklivesmatters and global warming. Still, there were points of interest, beginning with the fact Esquire feels enough anger out there to base a story on it.
Another point – not everyone is angry, nor does anger relate directly to economic well being:
There’s little correlation between anger and how one’s faring financially. In fact, though whites report less difficulty making ends meet than blacks and Hispanics, they report greater instances of anger.
There are three things going on here.
One, it ignores how much attention people are paying. The poorer are not paying as much attention to how government functions, or to the issues of the day, as the middle class. I’ll bet those who are angriest can name the Speaker of the House more often than those who think everything is fine.
Two, economic shortage produces amygdala activation. Amygdala activation however can produce everything from depression, to fear, to anger, to the amygdala relaxation of denial. Fear is reserved for problems which threaten with unbearable consequence, and for which there is no viable solution. Depression is for a problem which cannot be fought, but which doesn’t threaten with unbearable consequence either.
Anger is reserved for a problem for which your mind sees a solution, but one small impediment is preventing you from implementing your solution. It can be the twig that hits you in the face and blinds you just as you were about to catch a rabbit to eat, the sprocket on your bike that breaks just as you were about to win the race, or the puny, mealy-mouthed guy who screwed you over at work, costing you the promotion you should have gotten. All will imbue you with a desire to destroy them, to make yourself feel better. That is anger, motivating you to act.
Here, those who are normally middle class, and who feel they have the ability to succeed, are angry because they feel the corrupt systems are an angering impediment to them implementing the solutions to their problems, and succeeding. In that environment, the continuation of the problem is angering.
This is why Trump is surging. Government is the impediment, and people want to see it go away. The establishment is the impediment, and people want to see it go away. I suspect the poor don’t see blinding success as immediately forthcoming, so they aren’t as angry when Fortune 500 companies are laying off because of some stupid government initiative. They don’t see success as being denied to them by one small impediment, so they don’t care.
Finally, amygdala activation is relative. The poor will not see their amygdala activated as much by shortage as the normally wealthy who suddenly have to navigate the pathway of resource restriction. It is like drugs. A Navy SEAL can tolerate hardship in the course of life fine, because he is accustomed to hardship. A drug user however, suddenly denied their drug high and entering withdrawal, will have great difficulty adapting to the hardship, and may end up killing someone or doing violence. As the free resource buffet shuts down, it will be the higher IQ’s and productive who will be most pissed off as their resources contract.
Anger is building. In Chinese philosophy anger is said to be the emotion of the liver, and it’s purpose is to motivate action. Given how angry the populations are becoming, I would expect a lot of action forthcoming, if nothing changes.
Apocalypse will not be a time of relaxation.
