Everyone seems to be so angry nowadays

I’m raging. We were told Covid would make us kinder and more considerate. There was applause for the NHS. The vulnerable were shielded. We were even concerned for the prime minister’s wellbeing. Sadly, normal service has been resumed. Kindness and consideration have vanished in a red mist and factory settings for Mr and Mrs Angry have been restored.

It’s nothing new. As far back as 2007 a MORI poll reported 75% of us agreed that “people generally seem angrier these days”.

If we’re being honest, there’s latent anger and selfishness in most of us. It doesn’t take much to bring out our Incredible Hulk. The big difference from 2007 is the growing impact of technology on how we communicate our frustration and anger. It’s easier to be angry if you’re anonymous and have no personal contact or empathy with the person you’re decrying.

For example, anger and vitriol appear to be the everyday currency of online Have Your Say platforms. Online anger, like Covid, appears to be contagious and in all probability, addictive. Online clickbait exploits our craving for sensational and extreme headlines that tally with our own, often-irrational prejudices.

Politicians have become the main targets of online anger and vile abuse. It’s difficult to separate the chicken from the egg. Have politics become more angry and extreme because of social media or vice versa? Political instability and economic insecurity lead to fear and anger, such as Brexit bile. Brexiteers manipulated and exploited immigration and loss of national control to ferment anger against the EU. In the US, Donald Trump’s presidency polarised opinion, in effect, a call to arms to a host of volatile and very angry people.

Divisive politics, overlaid with the Covid disaster, has backwashed into everyday life. What used to be everyday interactions now have an undertow of anger. Shop assistants, bus drivers, bar and restaurant staff all report daily threats and abuse experienced doing their jobs or trying to implement rules for our own good. Flare ups occur because someone walks up the down aisle or forgets to put on a mask. Road workers are abused when drivers are delayed for even a couple of minutes.

There might be momentary satisfaction in venting one’s anger online, at a fellow driver or someone just doing their job. That is the easy way out. It avoids the harder work of finding a rational solution to our frustrations and anger.

As the American writer Jim Butcher said of anger, “It isn’t good, it isn’t bad. What you do with it is what matters”. So, if someone upsets you today, don’t get mad, just get even-tempered.