It cannot have escaped anyone that we now live in an age of rage.

We see it every day on the news, but we also witness it in our personal lives interacting with others. My own reading suggests that human society was always on a constant low simmer, brought to the boil at times of shared stress like wars and strikes. The community would learn this information from the same sources like newspapers or during community activities such as church or the pub. These may have been simpler times, but the emotional reaction was there. It was however for the most part shared by the group. Even politics were largely stratified by social standing or geographic location.

We have however in modern technology a novel way to get our information; social media. We can also decide what flavour of information we like and the algorithms of social media spoon feed our biases and beliefs. Thus we are in an age where even the smallest thing or post acts as a trigger for the rage of a huge group of like minded people who can then feed off each other’s hysteria. People are united into a family or mob by shared bias. Nothing binds like a shared hatred and it is always a righteous anger because (we) are never admitting we are wrong, especially to the group who shares the belief.

Thus social media acts like an echo chamber. One that reflects what we think back and amplifies the emotion behind it. Simple dislike becomes anger and is fueled into rage by sharing emotions. With the addition that social media is virtual, you never get to see the faces of those you vent upon, you don’t see the hurt or the shock on witnesses faces as you would in a gathering of people, the consequences are few.

Anger is also a stimulant. It has been proved to be addictive; cortisol goes down when you are angry. Cortisol is a stress hormone, angry people actually feel less stress. Testosterone and heart rate are elevated, even on line your body is getting ready attack. It’s a wonderful feeling to lose your stress and become angry.

So in a modern society you don’t need to wait for a strike, for war or other insult to be angry. It is shoveled to you everyday in your feed by an algorithm that knows you like to get angry and the things you get angry about. Remember, they need to keep you here looking at advertising and rage is the largest fishook. You are given a grievance and a group to share it with. Indeed membership of that group requires your participation in the group anger.

Rage can be sought out and becomes addictive. Rage can be shared and through sharing grows. Rage reduces stress and makes the body feel enervated and alive. In these complicated times when you can even worry about things happening the other side of the world, it’s good to be distracted by the them and us aspect of modern municipal politics.

There. local politics. Your team against my team and we have right on our side. They are evil thieves picking our pocket so anything we say no matter how hurtful is in the pursuit of “right”.

I myself have recieved death threats, promises to burn down my home, threatened my wife and kill my dogs even to be tarred and feathered. Think about that. What have I done that would justify such rage? Has anyone in this town done something that would deserve such a threat? Not just once, but many times over many years.

Those that know me know that most of my posts are long winded reasoned things. When I do jab at someone, I lay out my reasoning.

If I want your emotional feedback I pay for it with facts. I am however clearly a “supporter” of something that has been portrayed as sides in local politics. I try to reason rather than rage.

I also like to show examples of “ordinary” people raging. Of the ridiculous and really quite embarassing things people say when they are sharing hate. I’m guessing this is what makes me in particular a target for their rage. By doing this I keep throwing logs on their bonfire. Certainly I could stop, but I really don’t think that would stop them. They need this shared anger because…well, see above. Anger is sooo good. Particularly if you are stressed about other things like the infirmity of age, money worries or your business going down the toilet.

So where does this end?

It doesn’t.