Angry People, Unwise Actions

David C. Stolinsky, MD
June 18, 2009

Many people become angry if they are blocked from getting what they want. But some people remain angry after they get it. Sore losers are bad enough − sore winners are even worse.

Liberals control the White House, both houses of Congress, many courts, and the great majority of schools, universities and the mainstream media. But some liberals remain angry. They laugh at vicious “jokes,” calling female conservatives “slutty,” while ridiculing older conservatives for supposed senility. Perhaps they take their anger about personal problems and transfer it to politics.

Angry at “the rich.”

Did you ever buy a new car, only to have someone key it? If I see a fine car, I might think I would like to have one like it. But what satisfaction could it give me to mar the paint? It doesn’t enrich me by one cent. It doesn’t help me buy a new car. It just takes something away from the owner.

That’s the essence of Marxism, whether it’s the straight booze of communism, or the watered-down socialism that modern liberalism has become. That’s the real reason for soak-the-rich taxes. Income tax isn’t a tax on being rich. The very rich could live on their savings and tax-free income, and pay no income tax if they wished.

No, a high income tax is a tax on getting rich. Ask a family of four if they’re “rich” with an income of $75,000, or $150,000. With the expense of educating children, this family is far from being rich. The effect of high taxes is to prevent them from ever becoming rich.

A rational tax would produce the needed (not wanted) income for the government, while causing as little disincentive as possible for people to work hard, start new businesses, hire new workers – and get rich. But who is rational when it comes to taxes? Instead, tax policy is motivated by anger and envy. Why else would we tolerate increases in tax rates that actually reduce the government’s tax receipts?

Everyone’s favorite tax is the one that soaks someone else. But everyone can’t have someone else to soak. In the end, we are soaking ourselves. We are preventing ourselves from becoming rich. Our envy of “the rich” is blinding us to the reality that we are venting our anger on ourselves. We are keying our own car.

Angry at the “far Right.”

Some liberals call Republicans “Nazis” and their leaders “Hitler.” Either they are claiming Republicans commit genocide – a horrible lie − or they are trivializing the Holocaust by equating Nazis with moderate conservatives. In either case, this slander is hateful.

Hitler built a cult of personality that verged on worship. His picture was displayed everywhere, including magazine covers and newspaper front pages. He was touted as the only hope of the people. A captive press praised his policies and condemned his opponents. A supine legislature allowed him to seize many of its political and economic powers. A passive population allowed him to control more and more of their lives. Does that remind you of anyone in today’s America? Hint: He’s not a Republican.

As John O’Sullivan reminded us: “In Europe, the fascists goose-stepped. In America, they jog.” Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw nasty epithets.

Angry at the “religious Right.”

Religious people want to keep “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Liberals believe the state isn’t under anything. To them, the state is supreme. How dare anyone suggest that the state can’t do as it pleases, but is subject to a higher law?

Not only that, but religious people want schools to have Christmas and Easter vacations, instead of winter and spring breaks. They want Christmas trees on campuses, which might make some people feel “excluded.” They want the Ten Commandments posted in schoolrooms and courtrooms. That might give students and judges the idea that they can’t do whatever they please.

Worst of all, religious conservatives want to keep marriage between a man and a woman, the way it has been since the dawn of history − in pagan Egypt, Greece and Rome; in Jewish Israel; in Hindu India; in Buddhist Tibet; in Confucian China; in Shinto Japan; in Christian Europe; in the Muslim Middle East; and in the atheist Soviet Union and other communist states. But liberals insist that they are wiser than all the great religious and secular thinkers in history, and they grow angry if their wisdom is questioned.

Angry at “greedy corporations.”

The recent parade of incompetence or corruption by bankers and business executives is a legitimate reason for anger. But leftist dislike of free enterprise preceded our current economic problems. Leftist anger is based less on its failures, and more on its successes.

Liberals bash drug companies that make “huge” profits. Would these ingrates prefer drug companies to lose money and go broke? Where do they think lifesaving new drugs come from – Martians?

Where did AZT, the first drug useful against AIDS, come from? Scientists at Burroughs Wellcome, a large drug company, developed some of the first anti-cancer drugs. They tested AZT but didn’t find it useful. When AIDS appeared, they pulled drugs off the shelf and tested them. AZT worked. But was Burroughs Wellcome praised for its cancer and AIDS research? No, it was condemned for “profiteering.” But without profit, there would have been no research institute, and no AZT.

Americans make up only 4% of the world’s population but earn over 60% of the Nobel Prizes in Medicine. Where are the medical discoveries from Marxist nations? The Soviet Union lasted 74 years, and Communist China is 60 years old. How many life-saving drugs were developed there?

A locomotive costs more to operate than a freight car, but without it the train can’t move forward. Americans create a major share of medical advances in the world. This costs money, but it saves countless lives, here and worldwide. Keying your car is annoying. Depriving you of new drugs, new surgical techniques and new diagnostic procedures can kill you.

No matter how it is disguised, the current rush to “reform health care and cut costs” means two things: rationing care, and slowing the pace of life-saving advances. But it won’t save money. Now that should make you angry.

Angry at fathers.

Many people had fathers who were drunk, abusive, cold or absent. Many people were raised by single mothers who did their best, but couldn’t make up for the absent male role model. Many people are angry at the father they had, or the father they never had.

One need not be a psychiatrist to see that anger at a father is easily displaced onto any authority figure − teachers, police, business leaders, government officials, clergy. And who is the top authority figure? Our Father in heaven.

One need not be a prophet to predict that the more we have broken homes and absent fathers, the more we will see anger at authority figures.

People who spend their lives angry at God are likely to ignore His commandments. That describes much of the modern world.

People who spend their lives angry at fathers tend to want the government to take care of them – like a mother. They want government-run health care, but they ignore national defense − that’s a father’s job.

Just angry.

Anger is a risky emotion. It inhibits clear thinking and leads to unwise actions. We would do well to control our anger, and direct it where it belongs – at terrorists, murderers, rapists and child molesters – rather than at those who disagree with us politically.

• Angry people think they are unhappy because you are happy.

• Angry people think they are poor because you are doing well.

• Angry people think their nation is poor because your nation is doing well.

• Angry people think they are failing because you are succeeding.

• Angry people would rather key your car than figure out how to afford their own.

• Angry people would rather knock down your office towers than build their own.

• Angry people do most of the evil in the world.

Angry people may be useful to demagogues, but they make a mob, not a nation. They are good at destroying, not building. Righteous indignation at those who hurt others is one thing. Free-floating anger is quite another.

Dr. Stolinsky writes on political and social issues. He can be contacted at dstol@prodigy.net.

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