It sometimes feels like everyone is angry all of the time. Every event however minor releases a flurry of anger. Now a bit of anger directed where its needed can be a good thing it can result in purposeful change but that’s not what I talking about here. No its the relentless anger that seems to pervade everything these days and the danger is that this is very bad for our health both physical and mental.
Take an average day on social media and many of my contacts will be tagging articles and venting their frustrations but more often than not their anger. Because of how interconnected many people are this will be followed up by other people responding and commenting and suddenly this anger is spreading its tentacles very quickly as well as morphing such that the anger increases. It some ways its quite fascinating. But it has serious implications as well.
New York Times columnist David Brooks recently suggested historians define our era by pervasive fear in politics, media and society. We are biologically wired to deal with threats, the body is designed with fright and flight mechanisms which were fantastic in the past when escaping from a sabre tooth tiger. But today are bodies are responding to work, politics and most definitely the media. Our balance has gone and everything is bad and we respond as such; the train is late – explosive anger, I don’t agree with that political statement – explosive anger, I don’t like your blog post – explosive anger, yet more “bad” news – explosive anger. Is it little wonder that concerns for mental health are increasing and in particular in children, especially when we consider what we and they are exposed to all the time.
The internet is a wonderful thing it allows connectivity, its how I am able to write this post and communicate with anyone who wants to read it. The internet allows the sharing of information. The trouble with humans is we are hard wired to seek out bad news, its what protects us. But the trouble today is the media knows this, it whats behind most of the “click-bait” and so do many people when they are writing social posts. If I share a happy item on Facebook for example I will get some feedback but if I really want to feed my ego and get lots of responses I would just have to post something that had more negative connotations. The main stream media know this too; everything is a crisis, the worst ever, a disaster. Somethings are but not everything and even if something is bad it doesn’t mean there is a solution.
Its the things that are not really a crisis that we really need to stamp on for the sake of all our health. If my train is late its not a crisis, its annoying but I will get home, there will be a solution. A few fuel stations not having fuel was not a crisis, again it was annoying but there was a solution and it wasn’t fanning flames of panic. The media claims they were just reporting the news but that was disingenuous and they know it. I often go past my local fuel station and it doesn’t have fuel, it doesn’t typically make the news. The population is currently fragile after 18 months of a pandemic, little glimmers of light are therefore rich pickings for anyone that wants to tell you “something bad will happen” and “you won’t get to enjoy it”. The surprise surprise you are angry again.
Is it any wonder that so many young people seem to think we have no hope, that they despair and stressed to an extent that I don’t recall from my own childhood. We need to take a look at how we respond but also how we help them respond. Humans are remarkable they can create the most beautiful things and solve the most complex challenges. Yes there needs to be a will but as we have seen over the last year humans can effect change quickly and efficiently. Now you may point out that perhaps we need to do more of that and I would not necessarily disagree but lets get creative and encourage ideas.
Lets not waste our energy on anger.
Looking onto the Marshes 