'Twas a good discussion, gentlemen; once again, thank you.
Since our chat, however, I have been mulling, and as I’ve come to something of an impasse, I wanted to see if anyone else had any thoughts on the matter. It’s like this:
We agreed that America is an angry country, and in some senses it’s always been angry, but if anger is a secondary emotion (which I agree it is), then what was the primary emotion that set this process in motion. I can imagine that there are several different ones for different groups, but is it the case that all who grow up or go there just jump on the anger bandwagon? Is this only an individual phenomena or is there such a thing as a group psyche that is playing a bigger role than we are willing to admit? What is more, I don’t think it’s too far fetched to say that this general “anger” is much more akin to “rage” these days, so what is it about American society that just chaps so many hides?
What I keep coming back to is the “shitstorm” that was unleashed over the bison incident. It’s not the bison per sé, nor even the tourist nor the rangers nor the media … it could have been anything else: there are so many shitstorms these days that someone felt the need to coin a word to describe them. That indicates to me a more deep-seated emotional issue that finds its expression in situations like this? What is that primary underlying emotion that’s driving this?
We spoke of “injustice” as one possible, general causal factor but is American society now so fundamentally unjust that everyone’s getting an addition dose of anger on top of whatever personal resentments they’ve been building up in their lives? Or is it perhaps the obvious disconnect between the image the people have of the country and its reality that is so unraveling? Or is this simply how a nation or a people react when they realize that their Empire’s days are numbered even if they don’t want to openly admit it (or admit it even to themselves)? Or is it something else or some combination of other things?
If the matter is not dealt with (if it even can be dealt with), perhaps Mark’s perceived possible civil war is the result. That would be, needless to say, exceedingly unfortunate. Or are there more not-so-angry individuals beneath the radar, so to speak, who are going to balance out the raging minority?
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not looking so much for answers as I’m looking for contours to help get the issue clearer in my mind.