Back on January 2, 2007, I posted "Is 'Anger' Now the 'In-Thing' in American Culture?" That post spotlighted what I called a "humdinger" of a review by Stanley Kurtz of Peter Wood's new book A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America today.
George Will, who finds Wood's arguments convincing, has today published a column titled The Politics of Anger. Here are a few quotes from his article:
So in this age that is proud of having achieved "the repeal of reticence," anger exhibitionism is pandemic.
Anger often is, Wood says, "a spectacle to be witnessed by an appreciative audience, not an attempt to win over the uncommitted."
[Quoting Wood" -" Today's anger is a coping device for everyday life. It also is the defining attribute of an increasingly common personality type -- the person who "unless he is angry, feels he is nothing at all."
Once upon a time, Americans admired models of self-control, people such as George Washington and Jackie Robinson, who mastered their anger rather than relishing being mastered by it. . . Today, however, proclaimed anger -- the more vituperative the better -- is regarded as a sign of good character and emotional vitality.Today, many people preen about their anger as a badge of authenticity: I snarl therefore I am. Such people make one's blood boil. (more)