So, there's this one car in our parking garage here at work that has a particularly annoying bumper sticker. It reads: "If you aren't OUTRAGED, you aren't paying attention!" I probably don't have to mention that it's the car of a democrat, you could have figured this out on your own. But, I've written about politics enough recently, and I don't want to turn this into a political discussion about how angry Democrats always seem to be and how it will probably cost them this presidential election (unless Romney gets nominated).
No, this is a far more simple argument. Think about that statement for a second...
If you aren't OUTRAGED (and yes, outraged is capitalized...and its also in blood red font that looks like boiling blood...seriously)...let's stop there. Outrage is a rather intense word. Outrage goes beyond annoyance, beyond anger even. To me, to be outraged at something means that you are livid. Blood red faced, yelling at the top of your lungs, hyperventalating, livid. And I don't know about you, but it would take a whole hell of a lot to get me that angry. Especially over something political, which this bumper sticker is clearly referring to. I mean, if Hildog wins the presidency, and she takes away the tax subsities from oil companies (like she claims she is going to...thus driving oil and gas prices up as the companies pass their increased costs onto the consumers) and gas prices go up another dollar a gallon...yeah, I'll be pretty annoyed. But I wouldn't be outraged. As far as the war in iraq goes, I'm pretty sure that, unless you have children over there fighting (and, really, even then, they chose to be in the military, and most of them chose to fight), the war isn't affecting you directly in any noticable way. Thus, there's really nothing for anyone to be overly angry...and especially not outraged...about.
Second, getting outraged over anything is really overrated. I think it was the end of the movie American History X that said "Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time." And I think this is a pretty accurate statement. Every now and then things will happen that make us angry. In politics, in love, in our families, in our jobs...everywhere. However, no good comes from being perpetually pissed off. And it really does no good to be outraged. Being outraged doesn't get results. Being outraged makes you look like a crazy person who's just ranting about nothing. Let me do the ranting. If something upsets you, it's much better to take a calm, rational approach to rectifying that which angered you than to be outraged and go off about it. I'll finish this part of the discussion with a quote from Yoda: "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." Don't get outraged, get motivated to be creative and bring about change.
So, now that I've proven that I'm not outraged over most things, and that, really, it's silly to be so angry over anything, it's time to move onto part two of the statement: "...you aren't paying attention." LIKE HELL I'M NOT!
Sorry for that outburst there, I was getting enraged! :-P
But, seriously, to state that those who are sensible enough not to let their emotions get the best of them are not paying attention to what is going on in the world, well, that's just ignorant. I'm probably one of the most politically tapped in people I know...at least as far as knowing what's going on in politics in this country and understanding it. I read a multitude of political writings and atricles every day. I keep myself in the know on everything from the current political race to domestic issues like the economy (and what congress and the president want to do to try and stimulate it) to foreign issues (mostly the war in iraq...but also Russia's combativeness towards the US recently and things elsewhere). I'm definately paying attention.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the people who get outraged over such political things are the people who aren't really paying attention. They are the ones who aren't reading into everything they are getting mad about, and are just towing a party line or being angry because some far ____ wing nut job tells them to be angry about it. If people would really read into policies and strive to understand what the government is trying to do in certain situations, you'll realize that there aren't any conspiracy theories, that our government isn't trying to screw us, and that most people do have the best interests of the country at heart. We just sometimes disagree on the best courst of action to do what's best for the country. But, honestly, our differences are no reason to get outraged. I believe that was the core preaching of the civil rights movement, when you get down to it...we should embrace our differences rather than be angered by them.
So, yeah, that's a pretty stupid bumper sticker. Maybe I should throw a rock at their windshield while blinded by my outrage over their ridiculous sticker to show that I'm paying attention!
Or not...
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