I don ' t have to tell you things are bad . Everybody knows things are bad . It ' s a depression . Everybody ' s out of work or scared of losing their job . The dollar buys a nickel ' s worth . Banks are going bust . Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter . Punks are running wild in the street and there ' s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do , and there ' s no end to it . We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat , and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixtythree violent crimes , as if that ' s the way it ' s supposed to be . We know things are bad worse than bad . They ' re crazy . It ' s like everything everywhere is going crazy , so we don ' t go out anymore . We sit in the house , and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller , and all we say is ' Please , at least leave us alone in our living rooms . Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steelbelted radials and I won ' t say anything . Just leave us alone . ' Well , I ' m not gonna leave you alone . I want you to get MAD ! I don ' t want you to protest . I don ' t want you to riot I don ' t want you to write to your congressman , because I wouldn ' t know what to tell you to write . I don ' t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street . All I know is that first you ' ve got to get mad . shouting You ' ve got to say ' I ' m a human being , goddammit ! My life has value ! ' So , I want you to get up now . I want all of you to get up out of your chairs . I want you to get up right now and go to the window . Open it , and stick your head out , and yell ' I ' m as mad as hell , and I ' m not gonna take this anymore ! ' I want you to get up right now . Sit up . Go to your windows . Open them and stick your head out and yell ' I ' m as mad as hell and I ' m not gonna take this anymore ! ' Things have got to change . But first , you ' ve gotta get mad ! You ' ve got to say , ' I ' m as mad as hell , and I ' m not gonna take this anymore ! ' Then we ' ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis . But first , get up out of your chairs , open the window , stick your head out , and yell , and say it ' I ' m as mad as hell , and I ' m not gonna take this anymore ! ' Howard Beale , Network 1976