A quote from the movie "Network," I found it very inspirational. What think you? (the video clip doesn't do the rhetoric justice!) "I don't have to tell you things are bad, everybody knows things are bad. The dollar buys a nickles worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter, punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere that seems to know what to do. And there's no end to it! We know, the air is unfit to breath and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our tv's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes as if that's the way that it's supposed to be. We know things are bad, worse than bad, they're crazy! It's like everything everywhere is going crazy so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller. And all we say is, 'Please at least leave us alone in our living rooms, let me have my toaster and my t.v. and my steel belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone!' Well I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get MAD! I don't want you to protest, I don't want you to riot, I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get MAD! You've got to say, "I'm a human being God Damnit! My life has value!" Here's the clip for those who are interested, it contains bits that weren't included. Good actor: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dib2-HBsF08&feature=player_embedded[/ame]
The last line in the quote raises some other questions; if our life inherently has value, then our life has equal value to everything else that has life around us. If not, then what makes us special from the rest? Which further raises the question, what gives us the right to treat other forms of life the way we do etc? Survival of the fittest indeed- maybe there is more to living than humanistic needs. Main point being, I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!
Using anger only pushes away the opposition.. Being calm usually is my first step to solving any argument. Emotions usually have a way of destroying any chance of a middle ground..
Emotions are required for investment, no? Emotions are not a good tool for making decisions, but certainly for motivations.
Yes, you do need passion, but I'm just trying to say I don't think anger is the passion we need to create change. But whatever people want to use to try is their choice.
Yes but will it ignite the change? Lead by example... I tend to ignore angry people myself.. thinking calmly allows you to think rationally. But again, everyone's different, and we program ourselves to work in different ways, so just do what you think works.
Anger CAN be useful, moreso as a wide-scale feeling. The idea is that we have to realize that the people that are in charge aren't some kind of geniuses that can't be questioned. The way they're doing things clearly isn't working. We need to stop just assuming they'll fix things, and going along with whatever we're told. WE need to do something. That will most likely require some wide-scale unrest, and then it has to become known publicly that many people are feeling like this, and actually want to change things.