Save The Outrage

Another week, and the Internet is angry.  This time, they are extra angry because a small, momentarily unsupervised child managed to circumvent the Cincinnati Zoo's safety protocols and fall into the Gorilla exhibit, which ended tragically for an endangered gorilla.  Why the outrage?  The Internet is outraged by the death of such a beautiful animal, the Zoo's lax security, and the parents' possible negligence.

Outrage is so common on the Internet these days that most of us don't even blink.  It costs nothing to be outraged, after all.  It costs nothing to be angry in your own home, sign a few internet petitions or to click 'share' on social media.  We can do this, be outraged, and then feel an inflated sense of accomplishment, as if we singlehandedly defeated the ogre of whatever made us angry.

Our outrage is fickle.  For example, where's the Internet's anger over the missing 7 year old in Japan, whose parents left him on the side of a bear infested forest road as a punishment?   Where's the frustration over all the murdering going on in Chicago?  We get outraged like a sudden storm in the spring, swirling up in the unstable atmosphere of the Web and then draining away just as quickly. 

If your outrage isn't going to lead to positive action, knock it off.  Just being outraged over the death of an endangered animal isn't going to bring it back.  Being outraged is useless, unless it's followed by action.  If you are angry about the death of a gorilla, but can't be bothered to help your local animal shelter, your outrage is useless.  If you're angry about the parental neglect that contributed to the death of that gorilla, but refuse to help the thousands of abused and neglected children out there, your outrage is useless. 

Save your outrage. Keep it to yourself.  Spare us all from the sound and fury that ultimately means nothing.