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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us October 25, 2004 Getting to the bottom of the well of anger Rob Asghar Jackson County is experiencing an epidemic of campaign sign stealing, keying of cars bearing political bumper stickers, and smashing of windows displaying election materials, the Daily Tidings reported last week. Sounds like we're all angry right now. But our competitive streaks being what they are, a common theme is: So who's the angrier bunch of people? Democrats or Republicans? Conservative historian Victor Davis Hanson has an over-simplistic answer. Writing for the National Review Online in August, he contended, "[W]hat is not explicable in terms of rational disagreement is the Left's pathological hatred of George W. Bush. It transcends all contention over the issues, the Democratic hurt over the Florida elections, and even the animus once shown Bill Clinton by the activist Right." He continued: "[T]here is a great danger in all these manifestations of pure hatred. We are in a war. And in these tumultuous days, the Left's unhinged odium will resonate with and embolden not only our enemies abroad, but also the deranged, dangerous folk here at home." Thus, these are the lessons one carries around in Hanson's universe: 1) If your opponent seems to you to be "unhinged," then you no longer have to take him or his charges seriously. And 2) Odium is a cool word that impresses chicks. Oh, Hanson does offer a meager attempt to explain Bush critics' anger, mostly chestnuts about how liberals hate us because we're beautiful and moral. Those explanations say nothing about how someone like me, a political independent who voted for Bush (and for his father in '88), could be so infuriated with how W has botched the batter. In the realm of quantum mechanics, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (another term that chicks dig) reveals that how one studies a subatomic event can affect the event itself. So it is with anger: it looks quite different depending upon one's vantage point. A person who expresses angry indignation feels like a million bucks and is praised as being "passionate" by those who agree with him; but he's dismissed as a screwball by the recipients of his rage. As a child, I learned that, if I vented my anger, people would shame me by dismissing me as a nut. (It led me to become an uptight master of composure in all circumstances, and years of therapy have made only a dent in that uptightness.) The problem is that the person who dismisses the rage of the opposition as "pathological" doesn't deserve a free pass exempting him from the need to reflect on what he may be doing wrong and what he could do to lower the rage level. In 2004, this needs to be understood more urgently by Bush fans than by Bush critics. Sure, angry critics can overstep their bounds. I know a nonprofit organization, filled with many well-meaning saints, that is struggling due to bad management. Frustrated critics of the mismanagement use inflammatory terms like "deception" and "corruption" to describe the state of affairs. That hyperbole polarizes others. Those who find all anger to be sinful (unless it's directed at a favorite bete noire) slip into a knee-jerk defensiveness and blindness to any management ineptitude. The real solution is to bring in new management, but the loyalists, so intent on referring all critics to therapy, will probably keep that from happening. Thus the whole operation is at risk. That's a nice parallel to the state of affairs in our country. Okay, let's go back to stealing each other's campaign signs. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Isotoner Slippers Dsw Shoes Ceramic Piggy Banks Fanny Mae Eloans Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weight Loss Programs Citibank Student Loans Acs Loan Matchmaking & Dating Scripts Adventure Travel Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation helzberg diamonds Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams