Of hope and anger

National Review, August 17, 1992 by Ben C. Toledano

I KEEP UP up to date with television based upon what the young children of my friends tell me. From them I've learned that non-prescription medications are now available for the treatment of hemorrhoids, vaginal yeast, constipation, diarrhea, and morning breath. "What about for anger?" I asked one of them. All I got in response was a vacuous, cross-eyed stare.

From what I've read in the press, more Americans are suffering from anger than from all the other above-mentioned maladies put together. Yet no cure seems near at hand. What research is being conducted in the labs? Extraordinary amounts of federal money have already been spent to salve the problem. Undoubtedly, we've applied it in the wrong places.

In general terms, anger is an emotional reaction of hostility and tension induced by frustration of a desire or a goal. Internally, it causes a feeling of resentment, not always against the true source of the problem. Wrath results when anger causes us to respond aggressively and with external effects. Cardinal Manning considered anger to be "the executive power of justice." In the late 1950s, British playwright John Osborne was asked why he and his group of highly creative friends were called the "Angry Young Men." His answer was: "To be angry is to care."

A good rule of thumb is, "When in doubt, turn to Aristotle." If he had nothing to say on a particular subject, it can't be that important. Concerning anger, he wrote: "For those who do not show anger at things that ought to arouse anger are regarded as fools; so, too, if they do not show anger in the right way, at the right time, or at the fight person .... it is not easy to determine in what manner, with what person, on what occasion, and for how long a time one ought to be angry" (Nic. Eth. IV, 5). He also wrote that "Complaisance is the characteristic of a slave."

First, then, we must correctly identify the source of our anger, perhaps the most difficult task of all. Today, we are only too familiar with anger converted to wrath against the wrong persons. "Rap" music is one very obvious example. The police did not cause the problems in our cities; they are not responsible for the deplorable state of public education or for the lack of employment opportunities. Misdirected anger, though at first sweet, "bitterly ere long back on itself recoils."

Anger over those who control our political system is nothing new. Walt Whitman, that gentle soul, became intensely displeased over the "bats and night-bogs askant in the Capitol" (his description of congressmen) and over "large masses of men following the lead of those who do not believe in men." Bergen Evans observed that "Legislators who are of even average intelligence stand out among their colleagues," for "Leadership is more likely to be assumed by the aggressive than by the able."

The available sources for our anger seem endless. Jerry Brown's irrational pronouncement that "everyone should be a registered voter"; the daily statements of unelected President Marlin Fitzwater, for which there is no accountability; the scandals involving savings-and-loan institutions, stockbrokerage firms, banks, and medical-care providers; just to name a few. It is no wonder that we are desperately confused and often strike out blindly.

As pre-school children, we expressed our anger by kicking, spitting, and biting. As adults, we are generally less physical and therefore vent our frustrations by arguing, cursing, complaining, assassinating character, and sometimes by drinking too much. Though healthier than bottling up responses, such overt expressions are always unproductive. Our extremely difficult task is to determine how our anger and our wrath may be utilized in the right ways, at the right times, and against the right adversaries.

HOW CAN we set realistic goals so that our anger might achieve positive results? And how can our answers to that question seem worthy of belief when so many worthwhile goals have been corrupted into meaningless pap? Surely we already know that we must strive to elect people to public office who will do more than follow ahead of us in their limousines. Unfortunately, the problem is far more difficult than electing qualified people to public office, assuming such people would actually run. We continue to ignore the necessary qualifications for those who elect, as if no such requirements are needed. Unqualified voters do not elect qualified public officials. If we are led by our noses as asses, that is our fault. If we remain prey to the insolent flattery, false promises, and divisive tactics of demagogues, that is our fault. As long as we remain uneducated and uninformed, we will be "Apes in Hell" manipulated and controlled by men who do not believe in men.

We have been told that "education is the key" to the point where those words have lost any meaning. At the same time, we know that the fate of any nation depends upon the education of its youth. Yes, we are angry because, deep down, we know that our political system, carelessly referred to as a democracy, has not provided an educational system upon which either democratic or republican principles can be nurtured. But sadly, we have forgotten how to labor and how to wait. The needs of which we speak cannot be instantly gratified, and, without that knowledge, there can be no reasonable basis for hope. Anger without hope is like hunger without sustenance.