Followers

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Anger in America

Hate is a drug, and Americans like their drugs.

Pushers line the airwaves of various television and radio talk shows calling out to passersby for a free sample of vitriol and bile. They start you out with the tame stuff such as a visit by former politicians pushing their biographies and getting in digs about how no one really understands how bad the other party is. Then it moves on to the daily soundtokes of anger that spew from candidates or politicians on a daily basis in Washington,

But hey, it's OK. You can handle it. Then before you know it you're mainlining O'Reily and rubbing your gums with Madow residue. Oh, you're hooked now.

That's when you can't get enough hate, so you branch out and start watching anything you can use to get your dander up. You'll find yourself watching Hoarders just so you can look down on someone. You laugh with evil glee at Toddlers and Tiaras because you need to feel the hate of being superior to those awful parents and their messed up children.

Soon, the caring person you used to be is a burned out shell of hate and anger towards everyone around you. You are a wasted thing with red-rimmed eyes from the high blood pressure.

The real war in this country should be the war on hate. We spend so much of our time hating people, situations and supposed problems that it paralyzes us. More than anything, what's wrong in this country is that we spend our time finding new things to hate rather than fixing our problems. Hate ruins you when it gets into your soul. You become this purveyor of anger, infecting others with your hate.

Hate ruins love. I had a friend once who loved, just loved, the Star Wars franchise. When the new movies came out, he took each one of those movies and turned them inside out and upside down until he found something to hate about each and every scene and character. He still calls himself a fan, but in reality he has taken the films and embedded them with hate and loathing. This person does the same thing with friends, picking at them until he can't stand them anymore.

I find myself stuttering and stumbling out my Rodney King-like plea to stop hating. It sounds simplistic, but really, "Can't we all just get along?" 

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