Rage Bait is Oxford dictionary’s word of the year; except of course it is two words. How many words must one have to build a phrase of the year? I guess dictionaries would collapse under their own weight if they started publishing the phrase of the year. Has the english language become so leaky we now have to pretend one equals two. 

Still and all, lets look at Rage Bait because what those two unhyphenated words are very relevant to our times. Just as I was raised to fish with worms and not flies, this generation of American politicians are cultivating the art of rage to fish for votes. We, the gullible fish, seem to strike at the political lines that provide satisfying rage instead of productive outcomes. How about “we” become “We the People” again? We humans seem to be designed for meaning and purpose and both those attributes need integrity to exist at all. Rage Bait is like a 4 cent chunk of worm or a fly tied with shoestrings that require nothing but an addiction to a satisfying pulse of anger; integrity not required. And so we live in a pool of anger, accented by hollow laughter, surrounded by a culture addicted to the bait of the day going nowhere but down because anger past its purpose acquires emotional weight and drags one down.

A modest proposal for good

Even healthy laughter serves a purpose. Healthy laughter surrounds a painful circumstance with a humor that lubricates a chuckle of relief as we slowly recognize how human we are. Conversely, rage past its purpose, pours cement over feeling and humor turns to lock sarcasm which brings us to this age. Politically we need solutions for critical, immediate problems. Rage is anger past its shelf life and a low rent addiction distracting us from our true purpose. The Good Decision Project proposes we simply never vote for politicians who rely on sarcasm, insult, retribution or diminishment. Those ‘baits’ diminish us, feed a dangerous addiction, and block our capacities to access our own sense of good. Vote for the people who have the, health, creativity and courage to relieve us of our crippling rage addiction. Our leaders should have a mature intelligence that allows us the healthy humor to laugh at the foibles of humanity, and move forward in the work of saving lives and loves in this nation and planet. That would be good leading once again to good decisions.