It takes hope, passion and leadership to communicate rage. Taking action with rage is easy, reactionary, often destructive, and rarely productive - but communicating rage requires a vision for the the future, coupled with the belief that one person’s words and ideas can effect real change.
Communicated rage was a primary building block of rock ’n’ roll - rage against social pressures, and rage against injustice or inequity. Bono recently made this point (with the unfortunate use of the word “girly,” a misstep analyzed by Alan Cross here in a manner that’s better than I can achieve). Bono noted that “Rage is at the heart of (rock ’n’ roll)” and is a crucial ingredient that is absent from much new music right now. Rage, when communicated creatively, can change the world. Musicians, writers and poets can change minds and hearts. I worry that this alleged lack of rage in modern creativity doesn’t indicate an absence of rage, but rather that youthful rage in general has given way to despair and acquiescence.
The United States was an obvious birthplace for rock ’n’ roll. There has always been a lot of stuff to rage about in America, and there still is. I read about current social realities in places like West Virginia and I wonder why young people aren’t bursting at the seams to break free of social and institutional boundaries - unless they have already given up on a better future.
Rage can be extremely useful, but it requires hope, passion and leadership to mobilize positive change. Young people need hope to believe in something better, they need passion to get motivated, and they must embrace the leadership required to believe that their own expressed ideas can spark a revolution.
I’m not sure that anyone in America right now is exercising the leadership and passion that drove orators and writers like Betty Friedan, Woody Guthrie, Ralph Ellison, Bob Dylan, Henry Rollins, Ani Difranco, and Chuck D to make their voices heard, and to unify movements. Pop culture often serves the same purpose as opioids - it can provide a moment of thoughtless comfort from difficult circumstances, but it is a distraction, and it doesn’t help anything in the long run. Pop has its place in society, but as we enter into 2018, a creative revolution built on rage may be the medicine that we all need right now.
