Kylie Lang: Anger needn’t be all the rage

Outrage is everywhere we turn at the moment but our fury is so often pointless, writes Kylie Lang.

If you feel like you’re living in the age of rage, I get it.

We see politicians sweeping to power on platforms of amplified anger, Donald Trump being the most obvious example.

His historic return to the White House has been possible by cleverly marshalling and supersizing public fury alongside crude displays of
his own.

But what Trump plans to do with this anger – aside from inflating an already bloated ego – is the great unknown.

I’m expecting many Americans to be bitterly disappointed, not to mention people from other countries impacted. Cue more anger.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (Photo by Rebecca Noble / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Closer to home this week, we’ve had an array of antics, including a disgruntled Jetstar passenger allegedly stabbing two police officers in the neck with a pencil and a political candidate advertising a distasteful fundraiser that mocks the physical appearance of her rival.

Ali France, campaigning again for Labor in the federal seat of Dickson, seems to have thought it fair game to compare the sitting member, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, to a potato. Dutton’s camp was incensed.

Fury also reigned after a local council banned the wearing of G-strings in its swimming pools.

Model Jess King argued that the move by Blue Mountains Leisure Centres in NSW implied the human body is “inherently inappropriate or sexualised, reinforcing shame rather promoting acceptance”.

Could it be the council is simply reflecting a majority view that showing a little modesty is courteous to others?

Nah, stuff that, let’s be outraged.

‘Inappropriate’: Uproar over Aussie pool chain’s G-string bikini ban. Picture:

‘Inappropriate’: Uproar over Aussie pool chain’s G-string bikini ban. Picture: instagram/abbiechatfield

I copped my own share of abuse this week when a Sydney reader said I was an imbecile for falling victim to a banking scam, which I wrote about here recently in the hope of saving others from my experience.

The person, who shared no name or address but who did go to the trouble of handwriting a two-page missive and trekking to the post office to buy a stamp, was ticked off by my opening line, “if you think you’re too smart to be scammed, don’t be so cocky”.

The reader said they deserved to be cocky because they could never be scammed due to being so much smarter than I am. You do have to wonder why some people bother.

Anger itself is not a bad emotion. When coupled with positive action, it can bring about necessary societal change.

Look at any number of uprisings in history that have made the world a better place.

Anger can improve personal relationships too, by pointing out to someone your boundaries and what you will or will not accept. (And naturally, I am talking about anger conveyed without violence or intimidation.)

However, anger which is merely ill-disciplined venting serves no purpose other than to cause harm.

Think of the rage in our communities which is often against strangers – full-blown fights in shopping centre car parks because someone “stole” a spot; abuse of checkout operators prompting stores to interrupt pleasant piped music with announcements asking people to “be kind” to staff.

I could go on. And on. But I might just work up a head of steam myself.

Social media has a lot to answer for in this regard. Look at the way it plays on – and to – people’s desire to be seen and heard.

It has given rise to a whole other level of anger, which is vile and unfiltered.

One person piles on, then another, and another, and the sad truth is the way people behave online is linked to how they are in the “real” world – impatient, aggressive and entitled.

As psychoanalyst Josh Cohen wrote recently in The Observer, “raw and undirected kind of anger is prone to manipulation and exploitation, not least by X warriors”.

“For at least the past decade, anger has felt like the defining emotional texture of our daily social and political lives, giving rise to a pervasive atmosphere of mutual fear, suspicion and accusation.”

Harvard psychologist Jennifer Lerner says anger can “short-circuit” what would otherwise be a more systematic, deliberate and slow decision process. Makes sense.

If, before we became enraged by something, we asked ourselves, does this really matter and am I being rational or am I being a hot-headed tosser, we might behave differently.

We should question the purpose of our anger, because just being angry because everyone else seems to be isn’t a valid reason.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail
[e-mail]

Originally published as Kylie Lang: Anger needn’t be all the rage