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Outrage: A primer of 10 easy-to-follow tips

11/11/2016

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I am not a pundit and I don't play one on TV, but I do have an at-home version I like to pull out every so often when I'm trying to combat rage and depression. If you're still struggling with how to cope in the wake of another disappointing election season, let me offer my own tips honed from decades of voting.
1. Pace yourself. If you start paying attention now, you will never stop being outraged. You're in this for the long haul and you don't want to burn out. Between bouts of righteous indignation, read biographies of revolutionaries. Their lives were usually short but their outrage was never limited to every four years.
2. Create. Art and music and diversity of thought is more important now than ever. Stop worrying about becoming famous and BE outrageous. You can take a page from The Donald's playbook on this one: Who knows what could happen?
3. Focus on facts. Facts are admittedly hard to come by these days, but future think will prompt you to sink into depression and despair far too quickly and you'll never make it to the next protest march. A plug from Dad, the historian: Read your history.
4. Say thank you. Don't beat yourself up if dismantling the two-party system seems like too big a project to tackle today. Others are and have been doing that work for decades and they've got your back. Thank a revolutionary today.
5. Speak to your fellow human-beings. You think I'm maligning those too plugged in to talk to someone with a heartbeat, but when was the last time you asked someone honestly about what they believe? Contrary to popular "wisdom" you needn't use dulcet tones on all occasions, but do use Trump as your gauge. No one listened to him for years.
6. Make gray your favorite color. Squeezing your comrades and the citizenry into boxes labeled Democrat and Republican (or Hillary and Donald if you prefer) has not served any of us. Look where we are now. See #5 above for alternative strategies.
7. Beware of large signage. Right or left, question ideologies and systems that plaster posters of gigantic faces on the side of large buildings owned by government/corporate entities, regardless of whether those faces are white, black, brown, female, or other.
8. Follow the money. Don't know where to start? You can't go wrong if you look closely at who stands to gain. I'd start with The Panama Papers and see where your outrage takes you.
9. Pay attention. Stop anesthetizing yourself with religion, work, bus(y)ness, mother-hate, wine (fine or otherwise), marijuana (legal or otherwise), or your version of Kim Kardashian's ass. To paraphrase Carrie Fisher, your outrage will disappear temporarily, but the problems that caused it will still be there in the morning. We've got work to do while Rome is burning. Let it burn and plant a seed in all that fertile soil.
10. Wage hope. Don't be a cynic and a nihilist. The regime (any regime!) counts on your buying into number 9. Leave the cynicism to Donald Trump and his cabinet. If you're outraged and paying attention, the answers will come. No one said being human is easy. 
BONUS TIP: When in doubt, boycott before you have all the facts. The Farmworkers are always right.
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    Leslie H Cole

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