Hey babes. It's been a good week standing over piles of your letters, choosing whose matters and whose doesn't. It sure is good to be me.
One particular one struck a chord with me this time, so I want to see what I can do in guiding this lost soul back to shore.
U.W. from the Northwest writes, "Hey there, Cassie! I'm [such a huge fan! I can't wait to read your priceless advice. I look forward to it every single week, and tell all of my friends to worship you like I do. At the moment, I'm] dealing with a bit of a quandary. It's just that, I feel like, being a healthy, attractive young woman who has never wondered where her next meal is going to come from and who could choose virtually any path for my life right now, things are just a little too good. You know, with global poverty at unprecedented lows, the infant mortality rate at a fraction of what it was just a few decades ago, and human rights in better shape than they ever have been throughout history, sometimes I wonder what all is left to get furious about, and whose lives to destroy because they may have had a role. Any advice?"
First off, wow. I totally feel where you are coming from with that. If I didn't have something I could lose my mind over each day, I'm not sure I could get out of bed in the morning. Everybody needs something to do. For some people, that's raising a family or doing important work. For others, it's throwing rocks from our high horses, and then pointing the finger at whoever gets knocked down.
So what to choose? This is a really important question that requires almost no thought. Here's what I recommend. First, it's best to pick something that you can have a big opinion about, even if you don't have any experience with the issue. Find something that you can get really entrenched and tribal about: preferably some issue that can easily be split along lines to make an "us versus them" scenario. It could be race, gender, geography, political party, favorite dessert, astrological sign, or whatever, just so long as it's clear if someone is in or out.
Second, I find that it's really helpful to find a problem that is super complex and for which there is no apparent solution. That serves several purposes: You can't be expected to explain any idea or solution, because it's complex. You just have to get really angry about it and point the finger at the other side. It also ensures that this is a thing you can get upset about for a long time to come, because like I said, there's no clear solution.
The beautiful thing about dividing the world into good and bad people over issues that are complicated is that the game is not about fixing anything—it's about being louder than the people you're outraged at. And don't be afraid to explain to people just how much more virtuous and righteous you are than the people who disagree with you. That lets everyone see that, even if you don't have any solutions or useful things to add to the argument, you are the best person to be screaming at the other side.
Well, I hope that gets you off to a good start, U.W. If you follow this recipe, you'll find yourself really worked up more often about more trivial things all the time. If you really play it right, you might even get your own show or column, so let the rage flow through you.
Keep me in the loop about how it goes!