The Allure of Self-Righteous Outrage

Part of the Trump cult is clearly the subgroup of America that feels left out and fearful of the future because their middle-class jobs have disappeared or are threatened.  Trump’s message of bringing back manufacturing and coal jobs, slapping trade tariffs on the Chinese and stopping immigration would certainly resonate with this group even though his policies never really met any of their promised goals.  Difficult economic conditions produce this kind of desperate allegiance.

But there is a second group that has no economic axe to grind, indeed that has been thriving in the last 30 years.  Many Trump supporters I know are much better off than their parents and enjoy rather luxurious lifestyles.  They live in safe neighborhoods, enjoy fine dining and exotic vacations, have secure jobs with high incomes and excellent healthcare, and, in short, have few worries.

What makes these people so outraged and angry?  What could possibly cause so many of them to become sycophants of a horribly damaged huckster like Trump?  What is really behind all this pathos?

They will say that America is losing its moral compass and becoming anti-religious.  They will throw out the ‘cancel culture’ trope and bemoan the liberal political correctness police.  They will point to abortion, same sex marriage, gender issues, so-called ‘America-hating’ intellectuals, BLM protests and other hot button topics as evidence of the decline of American values.

But what impact do these issues really have on the Trump-lovers?  Zero impact!  No one is forcing them to do or be any of these things.  It is the ‘idea’ of these things that incenses them, not their consequences.  They have embraced a purely abstract political and cultural hysteria.

I believe that one of our human frailties is a susceptibility to self-righteous outrage.  The modern lives of the relatively affluent are generally mundane and passionless.  We become listless and depressed.  There is a need for stimulation beyond the gym, the Internet and the TV; a desire for a higher cause to motivate us.  Strong emotions, especially ones that express self-righteous outrage, are very seductive.  They sweep us along toward a perceived noble calling.

It is always tempting to believe that you are part of an important movement, a call to arms to right a grievous wrong.  The Internet, talk radio and social media have provided a means to fabricate such movements out of whole cloth and spin people up into a dizzying frenzy of indignation and anger.

In ages past it was the desire for riches and the call to conquer that provoked the masses into destructive rages that obliterated their foes and then soon turned to destroy their own worlds.  Will it be boredom that launches the next wave of destructive fury? It is time for everyone to consider this basic truth:  Once the dogs of war have been unleashed, it is impossible to call them back.