Social Media and the Temptation of Catharsis

 

Many different types of Christians have found social media a convenient place of catharsis. Catharsis, a purificatory act that helps to dispel the impurities of rage, anger, hatred, vengeance, and so forth. I confess, I find myself giving into the temptation of seeking a catharsis for these types of emotions that arise in my frustrations over ideas and behaviors I find dissonant with my Christian convictions or discordant with my own world view.

Scrolling through Twitter is a clinical study in catharsis. While Facebook can be such a study, there is a tendency for Facebook users to create silos of common minded individuals whose likes for each other’s posts can further entrenchment into a common ideology or world view. With Twitter one can follow just about anyone since there is no need to ask for access through friend requests.

One of the surface perceptions one comes away with in reading the various political/religious allegiances is the rhetoric of difference. Each side claims the high ground, moral superiority, doctrinal verity, superior righteousness, and greater allegiance to the ‘truth’ however that is interpreted. Each post’s declarations, be they announcements of judgment against the ‘other side’, or a ‘planting of a flag’ – this I believe, and can do no other, so help me God – eliciting from the ‘other side’ a response. In many cases these responses will act for the individual posting as a form of catharsis, a releasing of negative emotional energy, and granting a sense of legitimization, a declaration of difference, ‘my vision, my worldview, my truth is now vindicated as I destroy your ignorance, stupidity, absurdity, etc., etc.’

In these exchanges there is most likely a conviction and a hope that if one’s reasoning, one’s arguments, one’s rhetoric is more rational, more intelligent, there will be a conversion to the ‘right side/my side’ by the intransigent idiot on the other side of the screen. I have yet, so far, seen this happen. I could have missed one or two conversions, but in my time on social media it has not stuck out in my observation.

The act of rhetorical differentiation covers over a reality that neither side of the ideological divide can see. In these verbal exchanges is the creation of twins. Each is becoming like the other in their inner psychological and emotional selves. This twinning is the mirroring of self-righteousness, anger, a sense of superiority, being right, a desire for the vanquishing of the other (in the other’s submission to MY ideology), a need for revenge when there is a feeling of slight or denigration. The list can go on.

Until opponents recognize the fact that the oppositional ‘other’ will most likely not be converted through such methods and arguments, nothing will ultimately be resolved. These tit-for-tats only increase animosity and conflict. And animosity and conflict are increased through mimetic mirroring, both in its negative form – I will act in the opposite way from my enemy (the enemy being the model motivating such behavior) – and in the mimetic contagion that comes from other like-minded people who support one side or the other. This contagion is like any other form of contagion, the more people involved, the more it spreads and increases its intensity.

The remedy for these types of conflictual animosities is not scapegoating, that is, claiming the other is the cause of all the problems I believe there to be from my particular ideology/worldview. The remedy is found, at least for Christians, in imitating Christ, whose life and teachings of non-violence compelled him not to dehumanize the other, to write them off. Note that while he had disagreements with the Pharisees, he still ate dinner with them. He did not demonize or dehumanize those opposed to him, but he did challenge their behavior, how they treated the ‘other’, especially the marginalized other. Somehow, we must learn to dialogue in an attitude of humility, respect, and hospitality. This calls for each of us to a greater self-awareness, a recognition that we each need a more profound conversion, a metanoia. And I confess, I wrote this for myself.