Tag: ranting

Linda Besner, of Hazlitt Magazine, recently likened the art of ranting to “verbal jazz.”  It's no surprise then that she quotes celebrity speaker Rick Mercer, a ranting aficionado and host of CBC's multiple Gemini Award-winning show The Rick Mercer Report, in her analysis about heated rhetoric. Similar to Mercer's opinion on ranting, Besner says there's something appealing and attention-grabbing about it. Much like dissonance and discord make jazz music much more interesting, ranting about important issues keeps societal interaction passionate and fresh. In the article, she illuminates the reasons why many people don't let their anger out—and, why Mercer thinks that they should.

“I think more Canadians should rant,” Besner quotes from Mercer's new book, A Nation Worth Ranting About. “It would make for a noisier but happier place.” The book is a compilation of the most popular rants that the political commentator and comedian has delivered on his show (his most recent can be viewed here, or, in the video above). His bold opinions on everything from political matters to teenage bullying, coupled with his charismatic delivery, has attributed to his runaway popularity and made him one of Canada's most requested keynote speakers.

As Besner and Mercer both decree, ranting is about more than just getting heated. Rather, as Besner aptly writes: “Saying ‘no’ to politicians who seek to define our country in ways we don’t like is a necessary conversation of citizenship.” Given the political commentary that Rick Mercer has been known to provide, it's safe to say that he'd agree.