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Anger is a powerful tool for introspection and personal development. The following are some salient points:
5 Key Factors That Have Shaped Our Culture of Anger
Throughout its history, our nation has had a conflicted and complex relationship with rage (Stearns and Stearns, 1986). We’ve generally moved toward suppressing it at work and in the family. Even though we now acknowledge that it is a part of who we are as people, we have different ideas about how to deal with it. While some of these are beneficial, others are harmful to both us and other people.
Many therapists encouraged “letting it all hang out” in the 1970s, advising us to express our emotions without thinking about the effects they could have on other people. However, not so long ago, displaying rage in the political sphere would have been seen as impulsive and uncontrollable. For instance, Governor Howard Dean’s bold tone, fist-pumping, and boisterous rallying speech—many perceived as conveying rage rather than passion—strongly hampered his desire to run for president.
Right now, there’s a greater encouragement and display of aggressiveness and wrath, both physically and vocally. The easiest way to characterize this is as the encouragement of an angry society. We are hearing more and more accounts of irate diners and Travellers on airplanes. Personal threats against election workers and candidates for office, as well as their families, have increased in frequency. Furthermore, a growing number of instructors have reported instances of verbal or physical abuse occurring within the classroom (Will, 2022).
Radical right-wing groups have been more outspoken in their rage over the past four years. In years past, these groups would have been swiftly called out for their racism, sexism, or antisemitism. Additionally, there has been a rise in opposition to COVID-19 vaccination campaigns and mask use, which is partly due to dissatisfaction with the government. A multitude of societal, economic, psychological, political, and spiritual reasons all contribute to our culture of rage.
1. Genuine complaints
People have legitimate complaints that they have carried for a long time, which feeds their rage at all the ways they believe their basic needs are not being met. These have to do with taxes, rising income disparity, cultural shift phobias, the true shortcomings of the government, manufacturing job losses, or freedom worries. Therefore, even though there can be valid causes for anger, the issue is in the way we’ve been taught to control it.
2. The power of authority
Our ability to control our anger is greatly influenced by those in positions of power, including teachers, politicians, religious leaders, and family members. These people are sending out more and more messages, both overt and covert, that might fan the flames of hostility and violence.
On the other hand, some provide messages that encourage introspection and stopping to identify the root causes of our anger so that we may deal with it in a healthy way. Taking the time to reflect in this way highlights accepting accountability for our feelings, ideas, and deeds. Instead of encouraging victimization sentiments, it promotes a sense of agency.
The message propagated by those in positions of authority that specific groups of people are the root of all social problems is one of the biggest sources of rage. Essentially, they incite ire over legitimate grievances and then encourage focusing that ire on the “other.”. By doing this, they support the claim that if we could only avoid dealing with the demands of the “other,” sharing, and learning to accept and live with others, we might attain total contentment and security. These really operate as a diversion from the harder task of attempting to address the underlying problems.
3. The discrediting of more sensible reasoning
These patterns of provoking rage appeal to our emotional brain rather than our rational brain, regardless of their personal purpose. They have, in essence, strengthened our innate tendency to dread diversity and to experience “stranger anxiety.” As we deal with the difficulties and complexities in our lives, it is an appeal that diverts us from the fear of not knowing what to do and from owning up to our decisions.
Every effort to control anger in a positive way entails using reason to help suppress the emotions that rage evokes. It is not necessary to suppress this. Instead, it necessitates strategizing how to effectively direct it so that we ultimately behave in our best interests.
But more and more people are taking an anti-intellectual posture that opposes the development of critical thinking and introspection, which are essential components of it. This kind of thinking encourages “following your gut” even when it may not be the greatest course of action overall. The ability to control our emotions and focus on our long-term goals rather than our immediate interests is necessary for pausing to think. The trend of encouraging people to release their anger rather of reflecting on their feelings and coming up with constructive methods to handle them has grown, from official statements of support at the highest levels of government to the introduction of anger rooms where people may act out their frustration by smashing items.
4. News and social media alike
The communication networks made possible by modern technology have contributed to the rise of rage. It is improved in the areas of social media, fake conspiracy theory creation, and news that targets various political parties. It is noteworthy that anger increases the probability of accepting such false information (Han, et al., 2020).
Our innate need to belong, fit in, and get Favour is the source of social media’s strength. It’s possible that too many of us are too devoted to the attitudes and ideas that social media models and espouses. More often than not, the messages we get on social media are reactionary rather than constructive, encouraging thoughts that help us grow into better versions of ourselves. Even if it’s not always simple, this kind of introspection is crucial to our health as a nation and as individuals.
Social media may stimulate competitive tendencies to become more irrational or even violent, just as it can foster competitiveness to better our lives. Such encouragement could just inspire some people to act out their anger in ways that others find acceptable.
5. Narcissistic groupthink
The idea that our own group is unique but that no one else recognizes it is known as collective narcissism. It is defined as feeling “out-group hate” and being extremely devoted to and appreciative of our own group. According to Golec de Zavala and Lantos (2020), this inclination is linked to prejudice, retaliatory intergroup hostility, and delight when others suffer.
Participating in such groups frequently serves to feed one’s narcissism. This is not the same as collective self-esteem, which is demonstrated by feeling satisfied inside one’s group and thinking highly of one’s group.
The principles of anger management that I have taught for more than 40 years place a strong emphasis on understanding that rage is a normal emotion that is triggered by a perceived or actual danger. It requires acknowledging the feelings that come before it, such as melancholy, helplessness, rejection, fear, guilt, and humiliation. It then emphasizes attending to these emotions together with basic requirements that are perceived as being under danger. This kind of introspection enables us to see rage as a message about our pain, our guiding principles, our expectations, and our skewed viewpoints, which may limit our capacity for both cognitive and emotional flexibility.
Such introspection and the heightened self-awareness it foster lead to real choice and freedom. We may develop the critical thinking and problem-solving abilities necessary to confront the hurt that lies beneath our anger by engaging in such activities. If we are to go past a culture of rage, we must learn a great deal more about this process and see it shown by individuals in positions of authority in a reasonable and compassionate manner.
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