The Re-Direction and Deflection of America's Confused Anger

We all know there's an anger that has shown itself in various forms for the past year or so. It started when the economy went south -- people were angry at the big banks and the government for bailing them out. Meanwhile average people watched as the stock market made their 401k into a 101k. The AIG bonuses infuriated people, right-wingers eventually defended them. People openly criticized greed as a philosophy, especially when unregulated, and the public wanted government to act, they even trusted government. But the anger element was never very focused.

Then came the tea parties which FOX News essentially took over on tax day in April, but gave little mention to them this past July 4th. Keen observers saw that what was going on was a shifting of the general, confused anger out there away from the corporations and toward the government. Never was the message totally coherent; Obama is a socialist/fascist, Obama is raiding my child's piggy bank, a raise in taxes is equivalent to the end of America as we know it. There were conspiracy theories about Obama's birth certificate, the Federal Reserve, etc. But it didn't matter, so long as where blame was placed wasn't at the feet of corporations and unregulated capitalism.

Now as the economy slowly improves it appears that we will climb out of this recession without learning our lesson as we did during the 1930s. Some new rules will go into effect regarding leverage; some easily broken laws regarding CEO compensation will be instated. Bernie Madoff -- more a symbol than a man -- has been sent to prison; a total distraction if there ever was one.

I am talking more about social consciousness and consensus, and perhaps this hasn't been fully decided yet. It feels that there is a war going on about not who we ought to blame, but who we should be most angry toward. It's very possible we will only become more cynical about both government and business, something that will only help the regressive forces in society. Once people are cynical they will yet again vote based on petty nonsense rather than their own interests. The problem is, if the recession drags on Obama and the government will receive more pressure from the public who thinks the economic stimulus is failing -- but if we recover too quick we will have learned nothing from the experience and can expect it to revisit us later.