i don’t think people really know how to be angry anymore. especially my male friends. there is so much hate and anger in the world at the moment, that we are told that really, its not ok to be angry, that if you are angry you should just ignore it, and focus on something else. what happens though, is people get angry, like furious, about things that don’t matter, and are essentially apathetic, or appear to be, about things that DO matter, that really should make you angry.
after september 11, and the bali bombings, there was alot of hate and anger going around. i know, i felt so furious after the bali bombings. i could not understand what had led one human to think that it was ok to kill other humans. i was confused and amgry, i wanted them dead. all of them, i wanted whoever it was that hurt all those people to suffer like the families and our nation suffered in the months following. but there was no way for me to vent that anger, especially without appearing rascist. so i got angry at other things. i got angry at the kids at school when they would tease me, i got furious at the television when it cancelled my favorite show, i was livid when someone bumped me in the street.
things are better now, i don’t get angry about stupid things anymore. but i see other people who are the same. especially as i said before, my male friends. how is a 13 year old boy meant to react when he watches on television thousands of people dying, and is told that he can’t be angry, there is no room for anger in our peaceful, loving, accepting 21st century. so now we have a generation of men with pent up rage and no way to vent it. they fight each other, drink till they are innebriated and get furious at tiny insignificant things. i was with a friend at a restaraunt and they did not have the particular meal he wanted, an annoying thing, but small non the less. he was impossible to be around for the rest of the evening. he was rude, yelled at our friends and went home early. and this isn’t a one off thing, i see guys (and occasionally young women) reacting like this all the time. however, today when i was pushed in a shopping center by a rude man, i didn’t get angry. i got upset and just said nothing. i should have yelled at the man, he pushed me and it hurt. i should have told him that what he did was rude and wrong and it made me mad. but we are taught that confrontation is a bad thing. we are told that its better to grin and bear it then cause confrontation, don’t get mad, get peaceful.
i understand anger is an ugly thing. but shouldn’t we be shown how to concentrate it into some other energy? rather the ‘just get over it”? what if someone had tried to see and understand why Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
were so mad? had observed, witnessed these angry young men instead of ignoring? what if someone had said to these furious young men in cronulla that they needed to get angry at a punching bag, or explained that their anger was normal? would we have had the explosion of anger? i guess there are many ‘what ifs’
the song i have posted at the start of this entry is called “Handlebars” by The Flobots. The lyrics read:
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
Look at me, look at me
hands in the air like it’s good to be
ALIVE
and I’m a famous rapper
even when the paths’re all crookedy
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to “De Colores”
And “I’m Proud to be an American”
Me and my friend saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want cuz, look:
I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome
I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone
Look at me
Look at me
Just called to say that it’s good to be
ALIVE
In such a small world
All curled up with a book to read
I can make money open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine sixty four
Miles to a gallon of gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions
I know how to run a business
And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance
I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone
I can split the atoms of a molecule
Of a molecule
Of a molecule
Look at me
Look at me
Driving and I won’t stop
And it feels so good to be
Alive and on top
My reach is global
My tower secure
My cause is noble
My power is pure
I can hand out a million vaccinations
Or let’em all die in exasperation
Have’em all healed of their lacerations
Have’em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don’t like’em and
I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command
I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite
and I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope
and I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handle bars
No handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
a fairly angry song would you agree?
the song progressivley gets more and more angry. the first verse is s cocky, its all “i am the biggest most individual guy here”, the second verse is more about his potential, then the final verse is vitrolic in nature, it is so hateful and angry, almost as if he is just resorting to his base emotions, seeing as no one holds much hope for him to reach his full potential anyway. we expect so little out of our young “drinkin, speeding, fighting” young men, we just expect them to dissapoint us, we don’t even try to get our hopes up as a society for them to accomplish anything. then when they get into fights we act outraged, surprised and pious. as if its abbohernt that they would react this way, when its us teaching them how to be.
why can’t anyone see that there is a serious problem out there? how many young men sign up to the army because they might get to fight someone? how many die for it?
peace
