Rage

For quite a long time now, I’ve felt a wild fury growing in me. I’m not proud of it. I don’t live for anger. And yes, I know it’s unhealthy. But this anger is burning with such insistence that I cannot simply fold it up and put it away neatly into a little shelf in the corner. If, at the very least, my anger was directed at something that was not such a hot topic, I could let it go. If, at the very least, people who knew nothing on the subject kept their mouths shut, I could let it slide.

But even the world’s most supreme morons have something to say on the subject of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

When I read the news, and the headlines blare: “Palestinian X shot after XYZ,” I feel that rage simmering beneath my skin (did you not hear the part where Palestinian X was throwing firebombs at cars?). When I hear about Pro-Israel students and professors on college campuses throughout the USA being silenced and drowned out by the outcry against them, that wrath jumbles my thoughts and all I want to do is scream wordlessly at those warmongering savages who won’t come out directly and say that they wish for the end of the State of Israel, by any means necessary.

Yet despite their illogical approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I know that it is important, despite my anger, to combat such insanity with facts, logic, and truth. I don’t delude myself into thinking that the majority of people actually listen. The majority is a mob, moving and acting only with the crowd, rejecting reason and favoring impulse. Take each person by him or herself and you will find that they are much more open and rational-minded than they would be in a group.

So I say this to each and every individual person: for God’s sake, or for Truth’s sake, or for whomever’s sake you wish: if you have an opinion, fine. But why are you so desperately trying to drown out the other opinion?

Why do you refuse to listen to facts? Or reason?

Why do you perpetuate the cycle of violence and hatred, instead of seeking to educate yourself and others?

Why do you allow yourself to be manipulated by age-old propaganda that has been recycled over and over again in order to effect the kind of change which in retrospect you will probably regret to have supported?

As the familiar catchphrase goes, “You are part of the problem.”