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“Anger”
Presented by Tanya Long

Toronto Star, May 6, 2024 headline: "Outrage in Ontario is the highest in the country, latest Rage Index poll finds." The Pollara poll recently released their regular Rage Index. This index measures anger and annoyance towards six factors: federal government, provincial government, the economy, ones personal financial situation, changes happening in Canada and latest stories in the news. 

What is the Pollara rage index? It started in August 2022. This most recent one was compiled between April 22 and 26, 2024. It consisted of an online survey of 1,507 Canadians over the age of 18; its margin of error is 2.5%. Not much of a poll, you might say, but does it corroborate your personal experience? It does mine. 

I don't think I'm a particularly angry person, yet there are news items that do fill me with rage, government backpedalling, incompetence and corruption being top of the list. 

A Google search will show an abundance of information on human emotions: how many basic emotions there are, what's the difference between a basic or primary and learned or secondary emotion. Anger is in every list of basic, universal human emotions. We see this anger displayed in very personal situations: road rage, domestic violence, random attacks on strangers on the street, on the subway. 

I started out by saying I don't see myself as a very angry person. But I did grow up in an angry household. My father was a bitter, disappointed man. He was not physically violent but he was constantly critical, particularly towards my mother. She had every reason to get angry and stand up for herself but she never did. I grew up very repressed and underwent just about every known form of therapy.  The understanding at that time was that the way to healing was through expression of those repressed feelings: scream out your anger, pound a pillow, confront your parents. That is no longer the perception because anger begets anger and expressing anger can generate more anger.

So what do we do? We live in an extremely angry world. Here are the questions that came to my mind. 

1. Do you consider yourself an angry person?

2. What personal or social factors make you angry? 

3. In either case what do you do about your anger? How do you express it?

4. Do men express anger more easily than women? If yes why?

5. Or is it that men and women express their anger differently?

6. Is there such a thing as righteous anger? What would be an example?

7. Does social media contribute to general anger?

Please join us, bring your own questions and concerns.