The Real Roots of American Rage

The Atlantic ^ | January/February 2019 Issue | Charles Duhigg

[Heartlander]

The Real Roots of American Rage

<...>America has always been an angry nation. We are a country born of revolution. Combat—on battlefields, in newspapers, at the ballot box—has been with us from the start. American history is punctuated by episodes in which aggrieved parties have settled their differences not through conversation, but with guns. And yet our political system was cleverly designed to maximize the beneficial effects of anger. The Bill of Rights guarantees that we can argue with one another in the public square, through a free press, and in open court. The separation of powers forces our representatives in government to arrive at policy through disagreement, negotiation, and accommodation. Even the country’s mythology is rooted in anger: The American dream is, in a sense, an optimistic reframing of the discontent felt by people unwilling to accept the circumstances life has handed them.

Recently, however, the tenor of our anger has shifted. It has become less episodic and more persistent, a constant drumbeat in our lives. It is directed less often at people we know and more often at distant groups that are easy to demonize. These far-off targets may or may not have earned our ire; either way, they’re apt to be less invested in resolving our differences. The tight feedback loop that James Averill observed in Greenfield has been broken. Without the release of catharsis, our anger has built within us, exerting an unwanted pressure that can have a dark consequence: the desire not merely to be heard, but to hurt those we believe have wronged us.

[blueunicorn6]

This is from The Atlantic.

The Atlantic is filled with crabs, garbage and miles of emptiness.

It is also the name of an ocean.

[headstamp 2]

This kind of thing happens when one side (the left) attempts to muzzle any kind dissent while ramming their policies down our throats by court order.

[central_va]

Cnn I get the cliff notes on this exercise in navel gazing?

[HangnJudge]

No mention of Christian Roots

Be kind, one to another,
Tenderhearted, forgiving one another

Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly

What is seen in society now is a catastrophic failure of primary Virtues,

Gratitude, Humility, Prudence, Fortitude, Courage, Justice, Honor
Temperance, Chastity, Charity, Patience, Kindness...

Replaced by the false gods of “Values”

And they wonder why they reap the whirlwind

[I want the USA back]

Rage?
The author of that article probably thinks he’s a genius for the wonderful insight and beatiful writing.
Not at all. He is full of cow muffins and has completely missed the point about this country. I invite him to go to the m*slim country of his choice and experience rage.

[Menehune56]

TL;DR. Article really could have used an Executive Summary.

[ModelBreaker]

“Larry Cagle wasn’t wrong to be livid at a state government that refused to allocate funds to educate the next generation of Oklahomans; his mistake was succumbing to the view that the only way to fix the system was to destroy it.”

That’s really the question, isn’t it—was he mistaken? The author assumes his answer.

If the deep state takes down Trump and we’re back to the progressive “ignore the deplorables” and “fundamentally transform America” as usual BS, it’s not obvious that the system is fixable.

[ModelBreaker]

The author is obviously very progressive. Progressives have been successfully and slowly boiling the frog for over 70 years. So he thinks we should stop being angry and that the system is fixable.

Do the frogs agree?

[Mears]

” Recently, however, the tenor of our anger has shifted. It has become less episodic and more persistent, a constant drumbeat in our lives.”

---

That can be directly blamed on the internet and social media.

,

[x]

American history is punctuated by episodes in which aggrieved parties have settled their differences not through conversation, but with guns.

That could be said of many countries.

Those that have achieved the most and stood out the most and those that have achieved and stood out the least.

There may be a middle ground of peaceful countries that have never experienced a revolution or a civil war, but what they have contributed may be hard to say.

[RatRipper]

Don’t bother. Wasn’t a bad article until it got down to Cesar Chavez and Bobby Kennedy praying together. Up until then, I felt that he was discounting the righteous indignation of the middle right against the far left of this country. Then it became painfully obvious. Complete waste of my time.

[right way right]

I’m angry!
Your right by golly.

[mjp]

academic colleagues misunderstood anger. He had attended many conferences where researchers had described it as a base instinct, a vestige from our savage past that served no useful purpose in contemporary life.

anger is the appropriate emotion to feel when someone has treated you unfairly, or has taken advantage of you, or hurt you.

Inappropriate anger can be due to:
should statements
labeling
mind reading
all or nothing statements
overgeneralizations

[SunkenCiv]

The Demagogic Party's behavior is the root of American Anger, e.g. their behavior at the Brett hearings.

[GOPJ]

Greenfield, population 18,000, was an unusual place to plumb these depths.

The above comment is Charles Duhigg's first lie.

What would be unusual?

Unusual would be if the community chosen had been filled with liberal know-it-all puffed-up liberal 'elites'.... Plumbing the deaphs of negative emotions in traditional neighborhoods is common... it's the ONLY place 'embarrassing emotions' are ever studied. Get that Duhigg?

IT'S THE NORM... the opposite of 'unusual'...

How much anger and rage do NPR listeners experience? Can we go full voyeur on phony elites? NOW THAT WOULD BE UNUSUAL.

To add insult to injury these puffed up overpaid so-called intellectuals never look at themselves unless they're checking out how altruistic humans can be...

Do the same rage study among Harvard elite communities and I'll be impressed with 'unusual'.

Charles Duhigg swims in the delusions of out-of-touch 'elites' - he has no clue how silly this piece appears to traditional Americans.