Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

No Summer Break from Anger

Every summer, college towns look forward to a few months when the students go home. Suddenly, parking is available. Restaurants give you extra attention. The pace of life slows down. People become better drivers, more polite.

But not 2022. This year, the annual slowdown is matched by an anger ramp-up. Almost every trip to town ends up with delays as traffic accidents become more frequent—more than twice as many reported by the Highway Patrol this July as there were in March. Back in June, the Washington Post quoted a psychology professor who was an expert in anger assessment: “We’re living, in effect, in a big anger incubator.”

Where is this anger coming from? It’s easy to blame the pandemic, the divisive effect of today’s politics, rising prices at the gas pump, insecurity over climate change. For me, the summary is: We are discovering that we are helpless to protect our normalcy.

At the same time, we know that humans have endured much bleaker times and come out triumphant. Even today, tragedies like the war in Ukraine and conflicts in Ethiopia, Afghanistan and many other places are creating horrible conditions and hunger in populations that were barely hanging on before the battles. How do these humans manage to be civil when tramping in exile from their ruined homes to shelters and soup kitchens? How would Americans handle those same challenges?

Anger, the experts say, comes from frustration, abuse and a feeling of unfairness. A trigger—The Last Straw—comes when a person feels that someone else has purposely infringed on their rights. Last week, I had two encounters with furious people. In both instances, I was in my old farm truck. One time, another driver thought I was holding up traffic and suggested (using very bad language, I might add) that I learn to drive, or that I trade in my old pickup for a Prius. Maybe it had to do with the bumper stickers. The second encounter, the driver had a very complicated rant—too complicated to explain.

So we might conclude that females driving trucks with bumper stickers are the problem, but that’s too simple. In the same week, two of my friends (driving cars) were in minor traffic accidents that were caused by other drivers. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I think, rather, that anger is making drivers forget common courtesy.

For the last couple of years, bloggers, tweeters and meme-makers have encouraged us to stop watching the news. At my house, the day begins and ends with the news, especially with the Jan. 6 hearings going on, but the bloggers say news-watching is a stress producer, a waste of time. News stories, they say, are filled with information that is (1) misleading, (2) inaccurate, (3) not part of your real life, (4) carries hidden agendas, and (5) is created for someone else’s financial gain.

I have a few friends who have taken that advice and stopped watching the news. They say they now feel less anxiety. And, yes, it’s possible the news is geared to make us tense. Every TV channel is loaded with advertising, usually for pharmaceuticals or home improvement, offering expensive short-term alternatives that promise to relieve stress.

And the news often leads off or concludes with reports on the stock market, up or down and how much. Whether we have stock or not, the Dow Jones has almost nothing to do with our personal well-being. Stock prices should be announced, at most, once a month. People curious about what they own can look things up on the internet or ask their brokers.

On US news, there’s rarely, really rarely, any acknowledgment of important topics. Like climate change. That’s a long-term problem that needs thoughtful, long-term solutions. It’s attached to almost everything else and every lead on environmental issues (think: wildfires, rivers drying up, refugees fleeing drought-stricken homes, flooding that ends with devastation of neighborhoods) could begin with, “Thanks to the refusal to curb American desire for energy, climate change has caused …” and then the story could go on. That might make us focus on long-term solutions. Maybe we’d decide to save our national parks. Maybe we’d refuse to develop marshlands and other sensitive areas.

Rather than focusing on long-term, however, news writers go for the short. And, as the saying goes, if it bleeds, it leads. Guns get attention when there’s a shooting and health gets attention during a pandemic. Sudden attention, however, doesn’t bring discussion. And, to solve our national problems we need national conversation.

So, should we give up watching and reading? Is the news a national conversation or merely a source of anger? The answer, and the responsibility for solutions, may mean the difference between the planet’s life or death. Let’s replace the bleeding news with real national conversation.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. She also is a co-founder of CAFOZone.com, a website for people who are affected by concentrated animal feeding operations. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History.” Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, August 15, 2022

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