Existential anger *UPDATED*

Barack Obama has had a weird life, but not a bad one. Yes, his father abandoned him, but he’s certainly not the only person, of any race, to experience that. His mother loved him, his grandparents loved him, he grew up in the mellow, racially-mixed world of Hawaii (barring his Indonesian stint), he went to excellent schools throughout his academic career, and his political career has been stratospheric. And yet, if you look past the “I’m such a mellow unifier,” and you find a very, very angry man. Ann Coulter, who is no stranger to anger herself, recognized it right away and makes hay with the fact in her column about his autobiography. As his two decade affiliation with Wright shows, Obama also seeks out angry people.

One has to ask where this anger comes from. Obama himself makes no bones about his relatively good life, one that definitely is well within the bell curve of the normal American experience, with a lot of stuff coming on the upper end of the bell curve (loving parent, loving surrogate parents, fabulous education, etc.). I remarked to DQ today that it seems to me that Obama isn’t in a rage at his life experiences — he couldn’t rationally be — but instead that he seems to suffer from existential fury that goes back to his very being. Circumstances do not affect his outlook; he’s just mad at something, and views his circumstances through that lens. That he’s learned to present as a calm man doesn’t affect this basic attitude.

My observation wasn’t so very deep or intelligent, but DQ’s response (naturally) was. He thought a minute about what I’d said and responded, “You know, that description seems to apply to Americans generally, especially to liberals.” He’s right. We in America truly have it better than any being at any time in history, and yet so many Americans are angry and anguished, something reflected in the recent poll pointing to an 81% dissatisfaction rate in America. We’re far less happy and optimistic than the Iraqis, for Heaven’s sake!

I’m baffled by this existential unhappiness. Do you know where it comes from? Do you know why Americans, who have, as John McCain noted, over history shown themselves to be capable of doing the right thing and still experiencing material rewards, are such a miserable bunch?

UPDATE: I’m not good at math, but Rockdalian seems to be on to something important in his comment:

an 81% dissatisfaction rate in America

This is a truckload of patooey. I may not know a lot about polls, but I rummaged around the PDF file for myself. This is what I came across.

N = 1,368
Registered Voters = 1,196
Democratic Primary Voters= 510
Republican Primary Voters= 323

Have you already voted in or do you plan to vote in a Democratic primary or caucus this year, OR in a Republican Primary or caucus, or are you not voting in a primary or caucus at all this year?
Dem Primary 43%
Rep Primary 25%
Not Voting 25%
Never vote 1%
DK/NA 6%

Doing a little math ( this is premised on the idea of me reading this thing correctly, always subject to further review ) out of 1368 respondents, only 323 are self declared Republicans.
Not a weighted sample at all.
Reading through the question, the poll does not breakdown the response to the question by party.
The 81% negative, given no proof, I would bet comes from the more than two thirds that did not identify or for declared Dems.
This leads me to question what role religion, or lack thereof, plays into the responders answers.
If I remember correctly, when polled, that the religious people answered more to the affirmative about the positive outlook in their lives.