Anger is a dubious luxury. It’s a luxury I displayed quite conspicuously most of my life. My anger was righteous: animals were suffering, and it was my fellow humans’ fault. Humans were suffering, and that was humans’ fault too. Fucking humans fucked everything up. I was a species traitor, refusing to put more humans into the world to fuck it up further. I resented breeders, carnivores, complacent media-watchers, the military, cops, consumers, investors, financiers, the religious, the unenlightened, the incorrectly-enlightened, the self-righteous, and the resentful.
The only reason I’ve simmered down as I’ve aged is I just don’t have as much energy to sustain such continual righteous fury. I gotta economize. Just as my metabolism has grown so efficient my aged body needs about half as many calories as it used to, my aged psyche has learned to do more with less.
Activism is an outlet for the young, who may be poor in wealth but rich in energy. Where does that energy go? In my country, young people aren’t drafted for wars. Few do manual labor. Few do any work at all, as childhood is delayed longer and longer, and more are expected to extend their educations to at least their early 20’s. There is a surplus of youthful energy.
When you have a surplus of wealth, you display it. Displays of righteous anger demonstrate fitness and vitality: this person has so much surplus energy they can afford to be ineffectually furious at things they have absolutely no control over. Someone that angry is psychically wealthy, if not psychologically healthy. Dog knows I used to swoon at men who were as passionately activist as myself. Angry young men: hot.
Bonkers activism brings hot young people together, in a world where they’d otherwise be isolated in front of computer screens. When you can’t afford gratuitous displays of monetary excess in the form of, say, designer bags or fancy cars — or even when you can! — you may still be able to afford gratuitous displays of emotional excess.
Would I still be angry at the world’s infinite injustices if I had the energy to care? I’d like to think I’m now wise enough to know better, but at my age it’s hard to know what’s wisdom and what’s menopause.
Excellent last line. It’d make a fine comic panel.
I have been following your work and using mimi and eunice longer than I can remember to put together the DBT and RO-DBT books for teens that I use and a LOT of the links are broken. Is there some way to get the access back to the strips? I recognize that this isn’t the place to ask this, but I didn’t know how else to get a message to you. Many thanks. Minal.