Rage

Rage.

Feeling rage after watching the video of George Floyd dying under the knee of a police officer is reasonable.  In fact, anyone who, after watching that video is not filled with rage, has probably lost every shred of their humanity.

But, we can decide how to channel the rage that we feel.  That rage can fuel hate and destruction.  Those who never let a crisis go to waste will use that rage to fuel the flames of revolution.  They will destroy everything in their path, not in memory of George Floyd, not to stop this or similar atrocities from ever happening again, but to further hate and then use it to overthrow everything that is good. 

Rage and destruction are not necessarily equivalent.  One can even understand the emotion behind the rage, find it rational and real, and yet condemn the act of channeling that rage into destruction. 

Everyone should be speaking out about the horrendous acts of four Minneapolis police officers.  Everyone should speak out about any such acts.  Anyone who cannot see injustice when it slaps them in the face is truly blind.  Anyone who tries to justify it is someone whose view and narrative of the world is so closed that they must certainly live in complete fear and hatred every day of their life.  But anyone who thinks that this is an excuse to hate and destroy everyone and everything around them is also filled with a hateful and closed narrative that certainly must make their life a living hell.

Hate.  Fueled by fear.  Creating narratives that hold no hope, no understanding or tolerance, where everyone who is not you is simply out to get you.  This is the world that sadly so many live in today.  People, locked in their narrative, look about them and see everyone and everything around them as an attack on their narrative and ultimately on themselves.  They hate and hate and hate until they explode.  And others will certainly take advantage of that hate, using it for their own political advantage.  People will not stand up to the hate of others if they can use that hate for their own political gain.

Some of you interpret those last two sentences as a slam against the President and his followers, others will see them as a slam against the Democrats and progressive Left.  They are not either and yet perhaps a bit of both.  Seeing them as simply a confirmation of your own political views demonstrates the problem that we have in our society today.

We live in a dystopian world these days.  We are schooled in it from the time we are young.  Compare the original Star Trek series, full of joyfulness and hope for the future, with the most current Trek offering – the Picard series - showing us a dystopian world full of angst and very little hope, and certainly no joy.  We are berated every day with all the problems we might be facing, encouraged to share all the sadnesses and hurts we have suffered, encouraged to see everyone else and even our country as out to get us in one way or another. 

We make sure that children are taught every evil that has or might happen, all the ways that they or their life style or their feelings might be under attack, but we fail to teach them the simple joy of being alive, of having understanding and appreciation for those around us, even those who may seem strange or different.  Actually, that joy is stolen from them as quickly as possible.

Instead of teaching tolerance, we teach hate.  Hate of the other, of the one not like us, of the one with a different value or faith or color or economic status or education.  When that hate becomes real and strong it becomes violent and it engenders fear.  And rage.

I remember the 1967 riots in Detroit.  They were fueled by rage.  A rage similar to that of today’s riots fueled by the death of George Floyd.  After the rage and riots subsided, we could have moved forward seeking understanding.  But instead what we saw was a rise in identity politics and its divisiveness.  Politicians stepped in to turn identity group against identity group as they sought to use a hugely magnified and often manufactured struggle and hatred between groups to further their own power.

Rather than telling inner city people of color that only the powerful politician who needed their vote could help them and then, after getting that vote leaving them with their simmering rage, those politicians and other leaders should have worked to give these people the hope, self-confidence, and skills needed to raise themselves up, not to become a dependent underclass.  Those leaders should have worked for equality and tolerance rather than creating a class of helpless and dependent voters designed to keep their political masters in power.

Identity politics is a political power tool.  It has become more pronounced, more used, and more hateful.  It helps no one but those who use one group or another for their own power.  It dehumanizes and fills people with hate.  And we should then not wonder that life, especially the life of those seen as belonging to a different identity group, becomes meaningless, valueless, and expendable.  We should not be surprised to see hate breed both fear and ultimately rage.

And so, here we are facing that rage for another time in our history.  We can sit back and let the instigators for whom that rage serves a selfish and self-powering purpose prevail.  Or, we can understand the rage but not accept its violence. 

The 1967 Detroit riots are also now referred to as the rebellion.  Some of today’s rioters also hold signs demanding rebellion.  We see others demanding revolution.  And, there are those who march in memory of George Floyd.  We can decide how we wish to channel the rage that our country is experiencing.  We can decide whether we want to turn our rage over to revolutionaries who can use it for their own ends while destroying everything we hold dear, whether we want to revolt against our entire system, or whether we want to demand justice for George Floyd and work toward education that will make similar events less likely in the future.

My rage is great.  I will use it to work for a better understanding and I will direct my intolerance  toward those who seek to use identity of one sort or another to continue to further divide and diminish our humanity.