Do we have enough rage?

Politics

[shouting] You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!’ So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’

Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:

[screaming at the top of his lungs] “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

Howard Beale, in “Network” (1976)

I don’t know… much as I’m pro- love and happiness and friendship, it does seem that when the French torch a few cars their government changes its plans. And yet when we go out and do some G20 protesting they through another $1 trillion in the pot, and when more than a million people march against Iraq war there’s not a flickr of concern. The more I see, the more I think we’re just not protesting correctly.

Now this doesn’t mean burn cars and smash windows and kill people (though I could name a choice few individuals…) I do think we need to start putting more bite behind our bark. Not paying taxes worked well with the poll tax (up to 30% non-payment). Can we do that? Can we, please?


Ed Dowding

Ed Dowding

Founder, strategist, writer, gadfly, TED talker, world-record holder, and (foolishly) reality-TV farmer. DOES: Innovation, Product, Advocacy THINKS: Regenerative Systems, Institution design, 300 year horizons

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.