Monday, July 7, 2008

Mental Note: Stay Angry

Remember when the price of regular gasoline passed the four dollar a gallon mark? Remember our shock and our outrage? And then remember when it passed four dollars and fifty cents a gallon and raced toward four dollars and seventy-five cents a gallon? There were to be protests and let's not buy gasoline for a day campaigns and let's modify our corporate large and small work schedules so we wouldn't have to drive to work so often and let's telecommute and let's and let's do all sorts of things to right this injustice and save the world.
The trouble with outrage is that in order for something meaningful so come from it, the outrage itself must be sustained. The cause of the outrage must remain urgent and always foremost in the minds of the people impacted.
So what's happened here? People don't seem so angry about the price of a gallon of gasoline these days and I must confess that I don't even know the current price of that gallon. And this should be cause for a whole new outrage over how easy it is to settle into a new routine especially when we feel that there's nothing we can do about the situation anyway.
Anger is one way we tell ourselves and others that we deserve better. Outrage is much more powerful but basically says the same thing. We deserve better than to settle into this situation. So does the world.

1 comment:

Leslie said...

Outrage by itself is worthless. Outrage translated into action is worthwhile. If you are angry about the price of gas, then take the bus or ride a bike or consolidate your driving trips, and encourage others to do likewise. The same goes for everything in our lives that is an outrage - and there is more of that every day.