Outrage Culture Serves Nobody
Outrage culture is tearing our society apart.
There have been a lot of different talking points about cancel culture. Most of this is fed by false ideas of erasing, this, that, or the other thing for “political correctness”, “woke culture”, and other such notions. The idea of cancel culture is thoroughly divisive, too.
But the real issue, to me, is not this notion of cancel culture. The real problem is the pervading outrage culture.
People find reasons to get outraged at the drop of a hat. It takes little to nothing to set people off and get them ranting and raving.
Being outraged by this, that, or the other thing is a choice. You have decided to let that thing – big, small, personal, or impersonal – set your mood and dominate your mindset/headspace/psyche.
That’s not to say that some of these matters aren’t worth getting upset about. BUT – and this is important – what can you do?
When it comes to the big picture, worldview matters – politics, COVID-19 vaccinations, billionaires going to space, and the like – it’s important to be aware. But beyond that – outrage doesn’t serve you or me.
Let’s face facts. There is little to nothing we can do about the big picture matters. The only thing we CAN do is vote in elections, make calls and send emails, not support businesses doing awful things, attend protests – and that’s about it.
Being outraged and expressing that outrage doesn’t serve anyone. It just feeds the negativity – and that, in turn, feeds the fear. Because when all is said and done most outrage – at its heart – is fear.
Outrage is an expression of fear
Why do anti-vaxxers spark outrage in me?
Because when all is said and done – I am afraid of the damage their rhetoric is doing. Thanks to the whole anti-vax movement, a huge swath of the population aren’t getting the COVID vaccine. Thus, the new Delta variant is hitting far harder than it would if more people were vaccinated.
This means we’re once again in danger of needing to close shit down for containment. Then that means another period of isolation and watching more partisan bullshit as people politicize public health.
Oh, and then – of course – more people can and will die. Which means I could lose more people I know and care about.
The outrage I feel towards people unwilling to acknowledge COVID-19 or vaccinate is white-hot. But it’s really a cover for the fear. The fear that shit will come apart again, people will be lost, and further collapse will negatively impact me and mine.
This is the perfect example of outrage being all about fear. Further – it shows that there are few options available to do much of anything about this – and feeling outraged doesn’t serve me.
What CAN I do? I have gotten vaccinated. I can choose to not engage with people who won’t, nor patronize businesses and services that cater to the bullshit. Also, I can share with people why they absolutely should get vaccinated – and the like.
Becoming outraged, however, utterly disempowers you, me, and everyone.
Outrage culture disempowers
Why does outrage disempower? Because it’s an expression of fear that gets turned outward (literally – outrage equals outward-facing rage) and serves nobody.
Outrage CAN wake people up, that’s true. It can spark action. Outraged at the unequal treatment of black people, Martin Luther King, Jr. encouraged nonviolent protests. The outrage – rather than just being fear-expressed rage – led to action.
But frankly, that’s rare. More often than not, outrage leads nowhere. It’s just expressed loudly and spurs arguments and negativity – changing nothing. Particularly when the outrage has ZERO basis in reality – or is standing against a lack of reason and sanity (read my previous thoughts on anti-vaxxers).
Outrage to action is a whole other matter from outrage culture. Outrage culture encourages upset and anger over this, that, or the other thing – but offers no actions or solutions for the problem.
Get mad, speak out – but that’s it. And while you are focused on this thing way outside of your ability to exert any control at all – you are disempowered.
The distraction takes your focus off yourself and all that you are doing. Which opens the way for your life to give you more reasons to find and feel outraged.
It really is a vicious circle.
Distraction disempowers
When you are distracted you miss things.
That’s just a natural fact. It’s the whole point of a distraction. You are focused on something apart from another thing – often another more important thing.
In the medieval reenactment society that I’ve been fencing with for nearly 30 years, we do melee combat. Rather than one on one bouting, this involves groups from two to a hundred or more against one another. We sometimes stage large battles where a hundred plus on one side faces a hundred plus on the other.
A common tactic is to employ a distraction. One person or a small unit of people will be sent out to draw attention. We sometimes refer to this as employing an “Ooga Booga” (as in they might literally run in front of an opposing unit and hop up and down crying out “Ooga Booga! Ooga Booga! Look at me, come fight me!” to distract.)
The whole idea is to have the opposition give their attention to that distraction – while the attack comes from elsewhere.
In a non-combat setting – that’s how lots of politicians work. They talk about all sorts of completely pointless things – and create situations to generate outrage – distracting you from them robbing you blind. Don’t believe me? Look at virtually everything Trump employed. He’s all about distraction by creating outrage. It’s super ugly.
The more distracted you are the more disempowered you are. You cease to attend to things that you can control and will positively impact your life to focus on distracting things outside your direct control.
Then you wonder, later, how you are in a place you would far prefer to not be in.
Changing this is up to you and me
Outrage culture is tearing our society apart because it disempowers us. We need to take back our power while being aware of the problems. That means we need to focus on ourselves and that which we CAN control to foment change.
We need to be aware but not hyper-focused on these outside matters. Meanwhile, when we feel the outrage, we need to work with it to find and/or create a way to change things for the better. Or step back and otherwise focus on that which we can control.
There will ALWAYS be things to cause you to feel outraged. But likewise, you always have the choice for what to do – or not. Be mindful, consciously aware – and use that to your betterment.
And remember – when you are better, you are empowered to help others be better, too.
Recognizing how outrage culture disempowers isn’t hard
It begins with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
Knowing that many of the elements of outrage culture are intent on distracting you and me from doing anything to find and/or create better – we can see the available options. When we recognize that we can choose to focus on the distraction and outrage – or instead, look for solutions within our control – that ultimately empowers us.
When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and spreads to more people. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity. A feedback loop we can all take part in.
Then, we build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That can be the impetus to improve numerous aspects of our lives for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.
You, me, and everybody are worthy and deserving of all the good we desire.
An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of pure positivity. That positivity can generate even greater positive energies – and that is always worthwhile.
This is the three-hundred and ninetieth entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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