A few weeks ago I bought a blood pressure monitoring device; one of those battery powered pump devices that automatically measures systolic and diastolic arterial pressures. I'm fairly healthy, but it occurred to me that I might be suffering physically as well as pyschlogically from the effects of reading about one Bu$h administration outrage after another.
What prompted this self diagonistic curiousity this was recalling an article that I read in the"Onion" about how liberals are suffering from outrage fatigue and thinking at the time that "outrage fatigue" would be a good way to describe my psyche at the time. Searching the "Onion" archives, I found that article - it was posted July 7, 2004. That made me think - "suffering from "outrage fatigue" for at least two years could cause a lot of stress, and stress can cause high blood pressure..." Well, long story short: I found that I don't have high blood pressure. But then I started think - "I'm wayyy more angry/pissed/outraged about Bu$h and the criminal cabal now than I was then... so what comes after outrage?"
One of the quotes from the "onion" that really stuck with me:
"For a while, I wanted more fuel for the fire, to really get my blood boiling," said Madison, WI resident Dorothy Levine, a reproductive-rights activist and former Howard Dean campaign volunteer. "I read the policy papers on the Brookings web site. I subscribed to The Progressive. I clipped cartoons by Tom Tomorrow and Ted Rall. I listened to NPR all day. But then, it was like, while I was reading Molly Ivins' Bushwhacked, eight more must-read anti-Bush books came out. It was overwhelming. By the time they released Fahrenheit 9/11, I was too exhausted to drag myself to the theater."
"It used to be that I would turn on Pacifica Radio and be incensed at the top of every hour," Levine added. "Now, I could find out that Bush plans to execute every 10th citizen and I'd barely blink an eye, much less raise a finger."
I remember thinking, "yeah, that's me."
Upon consideration of the matter, I also recalled Howard Beale, UBS TV's "mad prophet of the air-waves" in the movie "Network." He was the guy who lost it on national TV and went off on the "mad as hell" rant:
Howard Beale: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job... We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. ..All I know is that first you've got to get mad...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!'...
So, here is the point of this rambling:
I suggest that we need some way to express anger/outrage using a reference. Mere words are no longer adequate. For example:
Hurricane intensity is measured using the Saffir-Simpson Scale:
Category 1 - Winds 74-95 mph
Category 2 - Winds 96-110 mph
Category 3 - Winds 111-130 mph
Category 4 - Winds 131-155 mph
Category 5 - Winds greater than 155 mph
Tornado intensity is measured using the Fujita scale:
F0 - 40-72 mph (light damage)
F1 - 73-112 mph (moderate damage)
F2 - 113-157 mph (significant damage)
F3 - 158-206 mph (severe damage)
F4 - 207-260 mph (devastating damage)
F5 - 261-318 mph (incredible damage)
Earthquake intensity is measured on the Richter scale. Richter magnitudes are based on a logarithmic scale (base 10), where a magnitude 7 earthquake releases 10 times more energy than a magnitude 6 earthquake.
In honor of Howard Beale's public display of outrage, I suggest that the scale should be named the Beale Scale, and that the scale should have a range of emotional intensity indicated by "B" numbers. For sake of discussion, I have prepared a preliminary list of possible emotional responses:
B1 - irked
B2 - irritated
B3 - pissed off
B4 - upset
B5 - angry
B6 - irate
B7 - incensed
B8 - infuriated
B9 - outraged
B10 - mad as hell
Now, the scale could be 1-5, and any other terms could be used to express the intensity of outrage. Obvious potential descriptors include:
annoyed
bothered
put out
exasperated
perturbed
distressed
vexed
etc...
So, does any one have any input on this?