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I see anger on the campus where I work:
... the friendless student with his smart-phone on which he plays games between classes, whose anger simmers just below his skin and is directed at every teacher with whom he comes into contact.
... the volatile faculty member who can go from zero to 100 on the volatility meter in two seconds in the middle of a meeting.
... the Iraq vet whose hostility bursts out in class.
I see anger when I drive my car. The other day I gave a gentle beep to a guy who seemed to have fallen asleep at a stop sign. After that, he made sure we caught very red light. Seeing his out-of-state plates, I pulled up beside him when I had the chance and asked if he was lost. I got the finger for my trouble.
Many think that Americans are self-absorbed. I think they are scared... afraid that they will be the next ones to tumble from the middle class.
The Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement seem to me to be two sides of the same coin. All are at the bottom of the food chain. If only they would realize what they have in common and pull together. I am reminded of what I once learned about the South during the Jim Crow era: poor white pitted against poor blacks by the rich and powerful. Too ignorant to understand that they are in a class struggle and could be allies.
If all this inchoate anger could be focused and directed at the real enemy, we middle-class Americans might still be able to get America back.
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