We live in an age of rage.

We see or experience it in the near-constant sniping, tribalism, outrage, and character assassination which dominates much of social media. Much of our rage stems from the past year’s Covid lock-downs—the pent up frustration with health “experts” changing their minds on a daily basis, in governmental malfeasance and power-grabs, in being cooped-up at home with screaming kids, trying to simultaneously teach them while attempting to work from home and communicate with our fellow cooped-up and frustrated co-workers via Zoom.

Then there is the ease at which you can scream at someone from the safety of your keyboard and smart phone without ever knowing or speaking face-to-face with the person about whom you assume the worst. Keyboard cowardism pre-dates Covid, as does the phenomena of the “internet expert” who, because they can write creatively, encourage their readers to join their foil-hat conspiracy theory and then vent their fury at those who are not taken in by contrived “evidence.”

Our culture of rage has only gotten worse. The news is filled with people who attack (sometimes physically and violently) retailers, food servers, and others who we do see face to face—those we encounter who want us masked, or unmasked, vaccinated or unvaccinated, who think the worst of us if we mask, or go about our business unmasked. What previous generations of Americans saw as being a good citizen (comply with government edicts about public health) is now a way to express one’s tribal and political identity, with little or no regard for fellow citizens.

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