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Can we have politics without anger?
Anger is destructive, perspective warping and alienating. Can we do with out it?
“Tis a passion that is pleased with and flatters itself. How often, being moved under a false cause, if the person offending makes a good defence and presents us with a just excuse, are we angry against truth and innocence itself?” — Michel de Montaigne, of anger.
One might think that, of all the people all in the world, Donald Trump would have the least cause be angry or even to give in to anger. Having been given so much, and having taken even more for himself, his many wishes granted and his every desire sated: Surrounded by wealth and luxury, one could imagine that he might be a graceful and grateful person; Or, at the least, much less angry.
Not so much…
The essential component of Trumps personality, even more than the greed and wealth, seems to be the anger: It radiates from him in just about everything he says and does. It is both the cause and the concern of his lies: anger having warped his perspective and turning himself against himself.
Bernie Sanders is also very angry, constantly fulminating against the powers-that-be and the tide of corporate greed and societal inequality. His applause lines have the form of japes, but designed to achieve growls and hisses rather than laughter. He…
