Why so furious, America? Honestly, this country needs to chill out and work on a little thing called impulse control.

Suddenly, we're experiencing an increase in passion in every area of life from sports and pop culture to politics and religion. What happened to us?

We used to be Prozac Nation -- all mellow and self-satisfied, even when we knew our leaders were lying to us about the invasion of Iraq, an overleveraged economy and the steady loss of our civil liberties.

Now we gladly conform to the gun-toting, rally-attending, finger-biting, line-judge-threatening, Nazi-comparing, irony-missing, immigrant-bashing, Van Jones-hating, Ugly American caricature of North Korean propaganda.

You could hear fear in the rebel-yell of an obscure South Carolina congressman who shouted "you lie" at the president of the United States during his nationally televised speech before a joint session of Congress about health care.

You could hear it in the paranoid monologue of Pittsburgh's syndicated talk radio host Jim Quinn the next morning when he told his listeners to "riot in the streets" if President Barack Obama succeeds in pushing his health care initiative through Congress.

Over the summer, tea parties and town meetings became places where paranoia and misinformation ran amok. Nazi imagery and fantasies about Mr. Obama's "Kenyan origins" and ACORN-conspiring ways squeezed out thoughtful dialogue.

Second Amendment absolutists demonstrating within blocks of a presidential appearance openly displayed registered guns and hinted darkly at a willingness to "water the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants" again, if necessary.

Over the weekend, an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 conservatives marched on Washington at the behest of talk-show host Glenn Beck. The demonstrators are already accusing the media of downgrading their numbers from 1.5 million souls, a turnout that would have rivaled the crowd that showed up for Mr. Obama's inauguration.

The country has rarely felt this jittery and paranoid in my lifetime, which is a bit scary given our weapons of mass destruction, our propensity for stockpiling guns and our never-ending capacity for mass distraction.

But it isn't just in the area of politics that it feels as if the bad behavior switch has been flipped to the "on" position in our brains. Even our entertainers -- never the most stable bunch in the world to begin with -- are wigging out.

Sunday night, Kanye West stormed the stage of MTV's Video Music Awards to snatch Taylor Swift's moment of glory from her after she beat Beyonce for a VMA. Ranting that his friend Beyonce deserved to win over Ms. Swift, Kanye took boorishness to a new level -- even for MTV.

How many stages does a professional narcissist have to storm before he's no longer invited to awards shows? Like Rep. Joe Wilson, who blamed heightened emotions during Mr. Obama's speech for his bad behavior, Kanye found himself quickly apologizing for the stunt online.

On Saturday night at the U.S. Open, defending champion Serena Williams was uncharacteristically Kanye-like as she hurled invective at a diminutive line judge who called a foot-fault against her during a crucial moment during her losing effort against Kim Clijsters.

It was a bad moment for the normally good-natured champion, who congratulated Ms. Clijsters before exiting the court to a chorus of boos.

Meanwhile, on "60 Minutes," President Obama was an eerie study in serenity. He's not freaked out by the "haters" in the least. He smiled broadly as Steve Kroft tried in vain to elicit the tiniest complaint about Joe Wilson's outburst last week.

There were no bags under his eyes and no anger in his voice. He sounded fresh and sincere, as if August never happened and his poll numbers hadn't taken a precipitous slide. Mr. Obama promised that the American people would not only get a health care plan this year -- but a good one.

Even liberals who once doubted the pernicious effects of race on politics are now asking questions about the irrational animus behind much of the conservative rebellion.

Mr. Obama is too polite to give credence to such theories. He's left it to us to figure out why an obscure Southern congressman felt emboldened enough to interrupt his speech after sitting silent through the previous eight years.