Sarah Harte: Anger has become the defining emotion of our time, it’s all the rage
Trump Picture: And The Normalised Gone Good Politicians Donald Other John Past Manners Being And Bullying Ap Rage Of Locher/ Have Eroded It’s Conventions
This two stories — one about antisocial behaviour on Cork buses and the other about Trump’s rally in Madison Square Gardens — made me think that Western society has become enculturated in anger despite the different contexts. In some ways, public rage has become the defining emotion of this century.
Incrementally, we have been conditioned to accept a coarser way of expressing ourselves, with a resultant decline in civility and mutual respect.
On a bleak day, it can feel like we are witnessing an almost spiritual and emotional crisis. Maybe the proximity of the American presidential election is having an effect.
Ignorant, racist, misogynistic, offensive, crude, and angry speech was central to Trump’s rally. One speaker compared Kamala Harris to a sex worker with “pimp handlers”. Another called her the anti-Christ.
Tucker Carlson referred to her ethnicity — although he got it wrong — and said she had a low IQ. Jewish people, black people, Palestinians and Puerto Ricans were all the butt of racist slurs.
A talk show host from MSNBC commenting on the rally asked: “How did we get here, where a stadium of people come to hate? That’s a different country, a different time.”
It’s a question worth asking; it’s not what a well-ordered and just society looks and sounds like.
Comparatively speaking, we might think things are going fine here. Certainly, Simon Harris or Micheál Martin do not talk about grabbing women by the ‘pussy’. Thankfully, the idea is unthinkable.
However, public discourse and behaviour have been coarsened in the broader culture. This week, it was reported that Cork bus drivers are verbally attacked on a daily basis. They are now requesting security.
This month, a new pilot programme began on Dublin buses, deploying security guards in response to increased antisocial behaviour, including attacks on bus drivers.
Earlier this year, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation released figures showing that 4,106 nurses were verbally and physically assaulted in just over one year between January 2023 and February 2024. The figures are considered to be a conservative estimate.
Public representatives are also under attack. A UCD survey commissioned by the Task Force on Safe Participation in Public Life released this summer indicated that 73% of TDs and senators had experienced abuse on social media frequently.
That online abuse has tipped into offline abuse. One-third of Oireachtas members said they had been abused not just at social events as politicians but also when socialising on a personal basis.
Taoiseach Simon Harris has spoken about politics having become “more coarse, more divisive and more dangerous” in the wake of a bomb scare at the home of Helen McEntee, the justice minister.
LinkedIn used to be free of bile. Recently, I saw some angry and inappropriately insulting comments on Taoiseach Simon Harris’s LinkedIn page.
They were not part of what you might consider a respectful, productive debate; they were ad hominem personal attacks.
What stood out was that the commentators were willing to display their names and job titles. That is an unwelcome development.
Assaults on members of An Garda Síochána increased by 20% last year.
The Irish Aviation Authority revealed a 43% increase in incidents during 2023 where the behaviour of unruly passengers posed a safety risk on Irish air carriers.
According to the AA, one in four Irish drivers has experienced a verbal altercation with another driver.
On that note, I had stopped at a traffic light when a man hopped out of his white van and banged hard on the roof of my car because I had forgotten to turn off my indicator.
He roared every expletive under the sun at me with his rage-filled face screwed tight like a raisin and pressed against the window.
We can look to America and comfort ourselves that the raw, undirected anger manifested in these attacks against our bus drivers, guards, politicians, and airline staff has yet to be successfully banked by a populist Irish politician and turned into a movement.
Yet, anger has become the emotional texture of much of life. To echo the American talk show host, how did we get here?
There are legitimate reasons to be angry whether you live in Cork or Tucson, Arizona.
Economic inequality has mushroomed, lending itself to a strong sense of displacement and a general social fragility, diminishing a feeling of belonging.
Economically disaffected citizens who feel justifiably ignored, are angry.
Insecurity and a sense of exclusion give anger a licence to spread, affecting attitudes, speech, and behaviour.
In September, Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, put it starkly, warning world leaders that huge inequalities were creating an “unsustainable world”.
The covid pandemic was no picnic, and the aftershocks are still felt. There’s also been a cultural shift whereby anger is no longer stigmatised.
Donald Trump and other politicians have normalised rage and bullying. It’s gone past the conventions of good manners being eroded.
The abnormal has been normalised to some degree, and this degradation has been subtly infused into mainstream psychology. People feel freer to say what they want, regardless of how offensive, hateful, or hurtful it is.
Some studies suggest that anger online impacts life offline, with social media use being an accelerant of rage. Research is being done on this topic, and longitudinal surveys are underway.
The academic jury is still out. But common sense suggests that if we interact in high-conflict echo chambers, demonising each other, in cultivated controversy, where conflict almost becomes the goal, we are bound to be spring-loaded to react.
As one psychotherapist put it: “The capacity for emotional contagion of anger has increased; certainly, you see anger crossing populations much more easily.”
There’s a difference between productive, righteous indignation and sheer rage. The degradation of public discourse fuels a sense of divisiveness. It operates in its own sphere to cause more division.
We should be proud that our political culture is still mainly based on reason and basic civility.
Although we jettisoned the hate speech sections of the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022, which disappointed some, our government still authoritatively speaks out against hate speech.
This is the opposite of what was on display in Madison Square Gardens. But we need to avoid stereotypes, racist language, and populist rhetoric in political discourse, particularly when discussing controversial and sensitive issues like immigration.
Most of us are not attacking bus drivers, but we have a part to play in constructing our social reality.
Resisting scratching the itch of provocation and overreaction on social media platforms would be positive.
Not going bald-headed for someone who makes a mistake on the road is another one.
By the time I deliver my next column, we should have some idea of how this consequential American election has gone.
If fascist Donald Trump is elected, he will accelerate divisions and hatred in the world.
That will make it even more critical that we fight against the erosion of standards in public life.
Fingers and toes crossed, folks; see you on the other side.