Righteous Indignation in a society of new age feel goodism

I recently went to a training through work put on by Bach, a flower oil company. Among other hippy dippy remedies, they sell essence of Elm. Elm is intended to dull the energies of "Those who are doing good work, are following the calling of their life and who hope to do something of importance, and this often for the benefit of humanity."

In a society of shallow individualism/consumerism, we have a whole separate industry for people who are looking for more out of life. CDs, books, magazines, yoga accessories, and so on for people who need a little extra self-help to dull their senses to the outside world. A cornucopia of prepackaged personalized philosophies and tonics that can help you feel better about yourself and your place in a crumbling and immoral dedemocratized empire.

Plenty of happy pills to go around for the dissonance you may feel as a logical person in an era when the corporate free market ideologies are repeated 24/7 on TV as those ideologies simultaneously destroy the lives of so many millions and billions of people in America and around the world. Woe be to the person who feels anger for they must have psychological dissonances. They must not own enough candles or Deepak Chopra books. They must need more quiet alone time away from others in order to conform - or become accepting - to society's values. Society's values never being questioned as functional or otherwise. Society's values never being questioned as distractions to issues of humanity.

I believe it is possible to have both an outraged outlook on life, while leading a perfectly happy one. But it cannot happen if you listen to people who only want to talk about you, you, you. It cannot happen if you believe that if you only focus really hard on your dreams, you can achieve those dreams. It cannot happen if you think happiness comes from separating yourself from the world.

It can only happen if you feel a connection to others that allows you to fight for them, enjoy life with them, and be outraged by them. Accepting others' lots in life is a form of disconnect that can lead to happiness only through delusions and a dulling of your own humanity.

Opportunities for outrage are everywhere. Family, work, community, politics, education, and so on. As such, opportunities to speak out about those injustices arise often. From telling an employer they need to get their act together, to sitting at a lunch counter, to rioting outside a WTO meeting, these acts take courage but can be done by anyone.

This is courage I rarely have myself, but have been known to have moments of when part of a group of fellow trouble makers. Some cynics may call it mob mentality, I would call it group courage. This is why individualism and disconnectedness are so dangerous.

It is also why pseudo- and neo- liberals are so dangerous. People like Thomas Friedman would have you believe that the Battle of Seattle in 1999 against the WTO were a bunch of punks who wish they grew up in the 60's. In fact, the Battle of Seattle was probably the most important and biggest stand against injustice in my lifetime. It was something outside the philosophy of individualized feel good spirituality. It was angry, it was organized, it was incredibly diverse, and there weren't any products to sell afterward. It was something that happens far too rarely.

We need to get angry about drones killing hundreds of people in Afghanistan. We need to get angry about free market mercenaries like the WTO and IMF. We need to get angry about corporate pollution/welfare/unaccountability. We need to get angry about corporate media. We need to get angry at private health insurance.

But most importantly, we need to feel good about our anger and get angry with each other. My biggest complaint about blogs and the internet in general, is that we are still getting angry alone in our underwear. We feel good about ourselves when we write snide comments on the internet, when we sign internet petitions, when we write e-mails to politicians. Feeling good can be a powerful opiate. It is one I find myself under the influence of even as I type these words.

It's time to get angry and it's time to get angry together.

Peace