Peter Wood on the New Anger

I ran across a very interesting review of a new book by Peter Wood, done by Stanley Kurtz at National Review Online, http://books.nationalreview.com/review/?q=NDdmY2FlYjZkOTg3YjQ5Njg2YTQ2MzViZDkzYzdiODg=

Kurtz discusses the "Old Anger," generally restrained, as compared to the "New Anger," often observable in current political discussions, especially in the blogosphere.

What exactly is New Anger? Let’s find out by first having a look at Old Anger. Before we lionized all those angry anti-heroes — from Jack Nicholson in the movies, to John McEnroe on the tennis court — Americans admired the strong silent type: slow to boil, reluctant to fight unless sorely provoked, and disinclined to show anger even then. Gary Cooper in Sargent York comes to mind. Old Anger was held in check by ideals of self-mastery and reserve. As Wood puts it, “Dignity, manliness, and wisdom called for self-control and coolness of temper.”

“For the first time in our political history, declaring absolute hatred for one’s opponent has become a sign not of sad excess but of good character.” That, Wood says, is why our political anger is now New Anger. For Wood (a conservative who’s written for National Review Online) New Anger is a phenomenon of both Left and Right. Yet Wood eschews false symmetry, and one of the fascinations of A Bee in the Mouth is following Wood’s attempt to make sense of New Anger’s long, slow, and decidedly incomplete seepage from the Left to the Right side of the political spectrum.