Deadlier Than H1N1

SEEMS EVERYWHERE YOU TURN these days, you run into a free-floating rage. TV “news” has degenerated into a nonstop series of shoutfests, talking heads shrieking over each other to create utter cacophany. Road ragers pack heat and all too often, use it. It’s as if nearly everyone everywhere is ticked, angry, mad, and some other synonyms I’d rather not use.

Today I found a new and mostly satirical Facebook group that mobilizes the seething masses of the “Had it up to here” crowd: AN ARBITRARY NUMBER OF PEOPLE DEMANDING THAT SOME SORT OF ACTION BE TAKEN.

Yeah. Like the crazed Howard Beale in “Network,” multitudes seem to be shouting “We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!” So this new Facebook group should have wide appeal.

The Rage Pandemic is potentially deadlier than H1N1 is ever likely to become. For one thing, it’s spreading, becoming more virulent, and shows no signs of ever abating. The world is becoming increasingly a dangerous and deadly place, as too many people no longer feel normal societal restraints and vent their hostility on whoever gets in the way. The daily evidence is appalling in every day’s news.

Civility in discourse, courtesy, being polite, tolerance of other viewpoints and opinions—these are no longer modeled in the worlds of politics and broadcast news as much as name-calling, bullying, and threatening. Even too many religious leaders join in to sling mud and fuel the flames of intolerance.

What’s the cause? What’s the solution?

Perhaps the answers aren’t easy. But if I had to speculate, I’d say that we’re in a world on its last legs and that the battle between good and evil is in its final ugly showdown. The Rage Pandemic is only likely to get worse. So bad, in fact, that the way things are could soon look like “the good old days.”

Until…in the midst of all the raging and shouting, the Prince of Peace steps in to end the pandemic once and for all.