ATDTDA 671ff

[Monte Davis]

David Morris sez:

> "Righteous" anger can be an effective energy source for 
> action one might otherwise be squeemish to pursue.

And that's the double-edged-ness of it in a nutshell. For mere humans, it's
hard to know for sure when that squeamishness is weakness... when it's an
impulse to mercy that might be listened to... and when it's wisdom: you may
be wearing God's armor of righteousness, but you're not God.

E.g., the first two things that came to mind at the phrase "righteous anger"
were "his terrible swift sword" from the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and
Churchill's response when he heard about the successful A-bomb test in July
1945: "This is the Second Coming in wrath."

Now, I'm 98% glad that the Union won the American Civil War... and lean
maybe 70%, most days, to belief that the A-bombing of Japan meant a net
saving of Japanese as well as American lives... but at the same time, both
of those phrases stir the hair on the back of my neck in a deeply ambivalent
way. I  

As I've said before, I think we're meant to be ambivalent about Webb's anger
within the family and his terrorism without. Righteous terrorism? Fer shure.
Terrorism in the name of the oppressed? Mos def. But even from the
perspective of the Other Side, *he* is still ambivalent ("Could've done 'er
different", 671)... 

And "the one thing his sons wanted, they wouldn't get tonight" (672). 

Sweet dreams, sweet princes.