Saturday, May 11, 2024
Howard Beale’s (Peter Finch’s) cry in the 1976 film Network: “
I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!,”
There is a surfeit of people “mad as hell” today who apparently “aren’t going to take it anymore.” But they don’t seem all that sure what they’re mad at from day to day, or what they’ll refuse to accept anymore.
Most irrational anger is actually self-anger redirected outward in an attempt to protect one’s self-image.
I think that what drives being “mad as hell” is the perception that people have no power to change real or perceived injustices in their lives. This isn’t necessarily true, but it’s easier to believe you can’t change things than it is to actually try to change them.