What’s Going On? Why are We So Angry?

There appears to be a pent up anger in society that is being unlocked by s sequence of events that have opened the door to it being expressed across society, from all sides. So what is going on?

Anger is part of being human. It is sparked, according to the Mayo Clinic, by a number of things: losing patience, being unheard, a sense of injustice from events. These areas that impact us all. There are also triggers based on your own learning and experience, that provoke you and not others. Your emotional investment in family, people or your chosen football team can promote responses of anger. Our political positions, our social views, dealing with changes in society, age. We can express our anger in many ways, from a snap at a family member, to the extreme of violence. thankfully left to the few.

Until recently we just dealt with our anger. If our team was playing badly, we were frustrated and would shout at the screen, unheard, If there were politicians who were of a different persuasion, or were not living up to their promises, we would talk to friends, or chat at work with those that we knew were politically minded. Our most common expressions of anger were in the family environment. As we grew older we would stand up for ourselves against the normal dynamics that had held until we were educated and confident in our own choices. Husbands and wives express anger from simple being together a lot, getting niggled over next to nothing, but letting it fester until an explosive argument cleared the air, like a thunderstorm before the sunshine.

In 2022 the anger that we have seen grow has roots in the same causes, but one does have to ask if social media has enabled both a solution and a cause.

When a football match is on, Twitter trending in the UK will be dominated by the match, the players, and thousands of opinions being expressed, for others to read and listen to on the streams.

The same applies in politics. Whereas we used to have a say at every election, we now have our own media channels to voice what we think about Brexit, Blair, Johnson, masks, vaccines and more. We want to be heard. We need to be listened to. Our opinions should count.

This is a good thing. Having a channel that enables us to join in our democratic processes whenever we want, in response to a news item, an obvious untruth, a biased version of events, is a positive development in most cases.

But it is also an enabling that can lead to a growing level of anger. If we look at Brexit, there was little or no anger about being in the EU in 2010. Yes, it was not perfect, but anger, not much. Then we saw more and more people being engaged with the Brexit debate. They were being manipulated, they were being governed by an elite in Brussels. True? Who knows? It is a matter of opinion. But as more people took to the social channels to express their views, they discovered that they were not being heard. Unless they joined a hashtag.

The expression of opinions is in itself anger instilling. I want to be heard. I want to express myself as an individual. But what is the point if I just mirror the voices of all the other people in the country? Brexit opened the door to online debate, leading to angry exchanges between pro and anti- with facts being sidelined in favour of noise. The social interactions were fed by headlines. The dreadful remain campaign tried to threaten people rather than offer improvements, while the leavers said whatever they thought would work. Both took to social media to amplify and anger the other side as much as possible. There were also the reasonable, who thought about the actualities and the outcomes. They were bashed about like a cork in the sea.

But when you get involved in day to day politics is you are seduced by the idea of power. Rejecting those in power, or siding with the ones that want it. Believeing that you have some, if only a very little. No one thought in reality that Brexit would win. Even the supporters were shocked, many having promoted it in the absolute conviction that it was a hopeless cause but they were positioning themselves for the next election.

But win it did. And it fed into the populism that is itself fed by social media engagement. When we come to masks and vaccines, it is no surprise to see a strong alignment of the antis with pro-leave brexiteers. They are in no way directly connected, but the expression of power is the same. The need to stand outside the norm as if it is a genuine expression of freedom. The notion of freedom, discussed by philosophers since the dawn of philosophy, is wrapped up in mask-wearing, vaccines and the EU. That freedom is constricted by these rejections is neither here nor there, it is the belief that matters. It is religion not reality. Conspiracies concocted with the same myth-making as fiction authors creating dystopian worlds.

So is the frustration of false power at the root of the anger? That we think we can actually make a difference. but in reality, nothing has changed. To quote the old t-shirt no matter who you vote for the government always gets into power. The opportunities to express our anger do not release it, but add to it, as unlike shouting at the screen there are others out there ready to shout back?

The irony is that we need each other. There is no point in my spending time pontificating about this and that if no one does bother replying. I love a tweet that gets a lot of support, but also enjoy the intellectual, or not, the challenge of trying to win a debate carried out in snippets of 240 characters. I take abuse, and sometimes am less than charitable to those whose views I just can’t understand, but that is the cut and thrust.

Do I get angry? Yes, but not with the Twitter folk. I am angered by blatant lying, by being taken for a fool, by dishonesty and corruption, by those in real power treating us as insignificant. I tweet about it.

I get frustrated by being unable to persuade everyone to agree with me! But that has always been the case, from when I was a student politician, to arguing in favour of socialism and Republicanism with my Dad when going radical at Queens. At dinner parties fueled by wine and whiskey, when my arguments were not accepted as truth from on high. I also enjoy learning through debate. Taking a position and seeing if it holds up. Putting a case that is flimsy and enjoying the challenge of defending it from attack from all sides. Was I angry? Yes, in the heat of battle, but it was always left at the door with the goodbye hugs.

To this day I read and investigate. The documentaries available on subjects such as Oxycontin, the Kennedy Assassination, the Arab Israeli conflict are brilliant and stimulating. Books, well researched and written about how our frail democracy is threatened from within. I like to watch the political shows, local and national, but am challenged by the apparent lack of balance and innovation. The arguments are know in advance and the participants views are easy to forecast.

But what of vaccines? A real, proven medical solution to reduce the risk of serious illness. I have skin in this game, having had a serious lung condition, pulminory embalisms, four years ago. I need to be careful. I want to be careful for others too, by doing as much as I can to prevent both catching and spreading. But even these attempts to reduce the number of deaths has sparked a rejectionist and anger enriched conspiracy belief. Masks don’t work, they are a first step encroachment into our freedoms (that are already managed by multiple laws for less than life threatening situations, library books for example). Vaccines are being rejected by people with no medical or scientific knowledge on the basis of online fermented fear of a plot to do something or other. And as with many minority views, their anger is palpable, with protests, aggressive shouting, online abuse and a real sense that there is a frustration that has been let loose by the opportunity to reject science and modernisation of society.

Has social media caused anger? No, but it has revealed that it is out there, that there is an underlying failure of society that could be caused by levels of inequality across many strata including wealth, education, height, looks, success, opportunity and more. Maybe it has been looking for this opportunity to free itself from the norms of society, and online is the place to be angry.