Australia has an anger problem. Here’s what we can do about it

The horrific attack on independent MP Helen Haines should be a turning point for Australia. A respected, decent and hardworking parliamentarian has lost both legs after being deliberately struck, it is alleged, by a vehicle outside her electorate office. This appalling act of violence should force us to confront a much bigger question: what on earth is happening to the way Australians treat one another? 

We are becoming an angrier, less tolerant and increasingly disrespectful society. And unless we do something about it, I fear we are heading somewhere very dangerous. 

Look around. Motorists scream abuse and blast their horns at the slightest inconvenience. Supermarkets display signs warning customers not to abuse their staff. Nurses, teachers, council workers and volunteers increasingly find themselves on the receiving end of hostility. Even the small things matter. Young people who won't surrender seats to elderly passengers. Everyday courtesy disappearing. People treating strangers as obstacles rather than fellow human beings. 

Individually, these incidents might seem trivial. Collectively, they suggest something important is changing in our national character. We used to pride ourselves on being a relatively relaxed, friendly and decent country. We should be asking whether we are losing that. 

Last week, Charities Minister Andrew Leigh delivered an extraordinary Joan Kirner Social Justice Oration, “The Anger Machine: Rebuilding community in the age of outrage”, which deserves to be read by every Australian politician – and then every Australian. 

Leigh identified a fundamental problem: anger has become a business model. 

Social media companies have discovered that outrage generates attention, attention generates engagement, and engagement generates advertising revenue. Leigh cited research showing that each additional moral-emotional word in a political social media post was associated with approximately 20 per cent more sharing. 

We are being fed a relentless diet of grievance, resentment, hostility and division. Algorithms reward the loudest, nastiest and most inflammatory voices. As Leigh argued, we have moved from social media to antisocial media. But this is not simply a technology problem. It is a cultural problem. 

For generations, institutions such as churches, schools, sporting clubs and community organisations helped reinforce basic expectations of behaviour. Many religious teachings were outdated, and some were harmful, but their emphasis on kindness, consideration, service and responsibility to others was valuable. 

As religious participation and other forms of community involvement have declined, we have not always found equally effective ways to pass on those expectations. Add financial pressures, loneliness, mental health challenges and an online environment that normalises hostility, and we have a combustible mixture.