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The Age of Rage: Why Are People Are So Angry?

ccording to a 2018 Guardian article, we are living in an ‘age of rage’. Such anger is often framed as having an ideological or political bend or etiology (e.g.

Viral videos on X/Twitter of societal breakdown are algorithmically promoted to millions, such as looting and physical violence, creating the perception by the public that lawlessness reigns and consequently having the effect of making people less trusting of each other. Not just like-mindedness online, such as ‘filter bubbles’, but also in the ‘real world’ too, such as mode of transportation (trucks vs. cars), geography (‘rural values’ vs. ‘coastal elites’), or religious affiliation (or none). Again, this long predates Covid (the aforelinked Gaudian article is from 2018), such as the famous 1995 essay “Bowling Alone” by political scientist Robert Putnam, who describes the decline of social institutions and the increasing atomization of society.

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