The Angry Young Fireman

Refusing to bend even with his back against the wall. He regularly has to put his foot in his mouth. He’s received his share of backstabbing. His intentions are often misunderstood. He’s usually telling you about his beliefs with a sense of righteousness. He repeats his mistakes. He is the Angry Young Fireman.

In 1979, Billy Joel released the song “Prelude/Angry Young Man.” The song follows a prideful and cynical young man with the contrast of a mature perspective. In 1996, Billy explained that the song was initially inspired by one of his tour managers. He was abrasive, angry, and couldn’t work with anyone. Regardless of gender or background, many of us in the fire service go through this phase of our career. We are largely filled with type-A personalities and are inherently aggressive. I couldn’t help but find the parallels to the song’s lyrics and my own life. I have been, and in a lot of ways still am, the Angry Young Fireman.

Radical Plans and Righteous Rage

After a few years in the fire service, we develop opinions and our skills get just good enough to have some confidence. Our intentions are good, and at the start are for the betterment of all. Passionate individuals are vital to our growth as a profession. They should be celebrated for their love and energy. With it comes a drive to find purpose and make an impact. Now, more than ever, we can find information about the fire service. On top of the articles and trade magazines we have had for decades, there are abundant conferences, podcasts, and training. Information is readily available, but comes with one challenge: it exposes successes and shortcomings in our organizations. For the headstrong, this is a seed of resentment, which naturally blossoms into frustration and anger.

This frustration leads them to take up arms for a cause. The Angry Young Fireman wants to be on the front lines of change and wants to work for a highly respected fire department. This isn’t a bad thing. Every firefighter deserves a professional and mission-focused department. They will run through brick walls to make that opinion known. They will win every argument with no regard for the relationships they burn. “I’m not here to make friends,” they tell themselves, validating their self-deception. Their anger should be accepted because their cause is just and they’re right, after all. Aren’t they?

The Angry Young Fireman identifies as a rebel or modern day Robin Hood. There is a slippery slope to becoming an anarchist. They raise a little hell for attention and not for actual change. They let things fail so they can say, “I told you so,” and laugh at how stupid everyone else is.

This change we seek is a long game and is won and lost with personal relationships. It isn’t your delivery now, it is how you delivered it in the past. When you do not have strong relationships with those around you, your sales pitch for change is lost. Change takes a group of people united in purpose and is built and maintained on trust. Why would anyone join a leader who tells them they are the problem? Our anger is a choice, It may be hard to accept, but it is true.

The Skilled Martyr

Believing in your cause is not a negative. Fighting for that cause is a necessity for change, so long as it is based on altruism and not narcissism. Change goes against grain and will always bring opposition, no matter how right you are. Frustration comes with the territory when dealing with things you care about. However, as stated in the book, The Courage to Be Disliked:

“There is a difference between personal anger (personal grudge) and indignation with regard to society’s contraindications and injustices (righteous indignation).”

When you take things personally your causes become personal. Your message is about you and not the interest of others. You do not need to prove them wrong for your message to be valid. People can disagree and still move on.

However, so often the Angry Young Fireman continuously lashes out and destroys his relationships. He looks at everyone as an enemy to wage war with. He feels as if everyone is out to get him. If all you see are enemies, then that’s all you’ll ever have. If we follow the golden rule of treating others how we would want to be treated, we can build those relationships. You may not be able to un-burn a bridge, but you can put out the fire; we are pretty good at that, after all.

Think of your emotional outbursts or blunt comments as a shovel. Each time you act out, you remove some dirt from beneath yourself. Every so often that isn’t a big deal, especially if it is righteous indignation. The more scoops of the shovel, the deeper the hole. If you don’t want to get stuck, put down the shovel. Dig too deep and the more help you’ll need from others to get out. We can all get out of this hole; some ways are more complicated than others. You may even be able to put some dirt back in the hole.

Being so jaded with your peers or fire department reinforces your own victim complex: “You’re not going to listen to me anyways, so whatever,” or “Everyone hates me anyways, so I have nothing to lose.” These are words of a skilled martyr. We once again deceive ourselves into believing everyone else is the problem. This chip on your shoulder can indeed fuel you. It feeds directly into your sense of rebellion and gives you false purpose.

Preventing your self-destruction starts with a paradigm shift. Get out of your own self-validation and look around.

Your Place In the World

Where does the Angry Young Fireman fit into the world? He havs a choice: grow or give up. Billy Joel actually fired his stage manager. His lack of people skills was detrimental to the rest of the crew.

I, too, learned this lesson the hard way, during a promotional process, I was graded with a peer and a supervisor review. My peers ranked me last out of 10, while my supervisors ranked me 4th. This was after years attempting to force change and telling people their beliefs were wrong. I made many of the mistakes written above. All my knowledge, skills, and preparation could not overtake my attitude. The relationships I held were not strong enough and were rooted in resentment. I was on a path, and I faced the consequences of all my actions. My ambition and pride blinded me from reality.

Many Angry Young Firemen become Angry Old Firemen. They become the thing they despised most in this profession. This is a tragic ending, but it is a conscious choice. Accept responsibility and grow or sink into bitterness. Many leave the fire service as Angry Old Firemen and provide nothing on the way out. Sadly, they also may become the catalyst for the next Angry Young Fireman. The cycle can be unending if not stopped. So how do we stop it?

First, learn from your mistakes. This doesn’t mean becoming a shell of yourself, but your regret is a powerful tool. It gives perspective and forces you to look at things differently. Much like preventing injuries or line-of-duty deaths, stop repeating things that are predictable or preventable. If your directness intimidates people, give them context. Hold yourself accountable to your actions. Your passion can become infectious if it is positive. If you are looking to establish change for the right reasons, you need to take ownership of your reception. Your passion can unlock many doors and give you seats at many tables. However, if you douse the rooms in kerosene and toss in a road flare, your opportunity is wasted.

Most importantly, find the next Angry Young Fireman and stop him in his tracks. Share your mistakes with him. Prevent him from going down a path of hate, resentment, and anger. If you are or were one yourself, it shouldn’t be hard to pinpoint the start of his downfall.

Displace your anger with understanding. You may not always like the reason why something is the way it is, but you will never change it without understanding it or yourself. The tour manager’s anger only immortalized him in song. He’ll forever be known as frustrating and disruptive. If you want to survive, you must evolve and mature.

We Need the Angry Young Fireman

Most of our greatest leaders in the fire service were once angry and young, but they learned how to control themselves. Passion can either be emotional or productive, and you have a choice in how you use it. With help, the Angry Young Fireman has the capacity to become the Wise Old Fireman.

Energy and passion can be infectious. Rebels built the U.S.A., blew up the Death Star, and stopped Tony Perkis from ruining Camp Hope. All these rebels then took on the responsibilities of the intuitions that suppressed them. They knew when it was time to stop fighting and start leading. Every Angry Young Fireman is capable of great things with the right coaching and mentoring.

REFERENCES

Billy Joel. “Prelude/Angry Young Man.” Turnstiles, Columbia Records, 1976.

Kishimi, Ichiro, and Fumitake Koga. The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness. Translated by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga, Simon & Schuster, 2018.

“Billy Joel Q&A: What Was Your Inspiration for Writing ‘Angry Young Man’ and What Is Its Meaning?” Billy Joel Official Site, 25 May 2012,

Alex Tanner started as a volunteer firefighter in 2010 and served as a contracted lieutenant. He now serves as a firefighter with the Lake Zurich (IL) Fire Department.