Outrage is a strongmoral emotion characterized by a combination ofsurprise,disgust,[1] andanger,[2] usually in reaction to a grave personal offense.[3] It comes from old French "ultrage", which in turn borrows from classical Latin "ultra", meaning "beyond".[4]
Moral outrage is the emotion of outrage experienced in reaction to aninjustice, as such involving amoral judgement, and is often accompanied by a desire to shame and/or punish wrongdoers.[5]
The 21st century and itssocial media have seen an increased display of false or manufactured outrage, with power and prestige beinghypocritically sought by professing concern for others, in a highly selective and temporary manner.[6] InThe Sociology of Everyday Life Peacebuilding, John D. Brewer, et al., observed:[6]
'Canonized' and 'preferred victims' generate considerable outrage when their memory is besmirched but the same politicians and spokespeople who express this outrage are content enough to besmirch the memory of dis-preferred victims. In contested peace processes, there are many people who are eager to offend and many only too willing to be offended, and victims easily get used by others to provokefaux outrage. And as public insult and degradation descend to the bottom in competitivefaux outrage in the public sphere, victims find themselves used for party political purposes, voiceless and ignored save when it suits those who exploit their suffering and pain.
The authors, whose work focuses primarily on post-conflict peace and resolution, propose aparadox: Individual "preferred victims" lack much if anyagency to control how perception of them is manipulated in the public sphere, and can thus feel "owned" by this process and those who are deeply involved in it. Yet, as a social class, they collectively may be surrounded by considerable socio-political power, which is wielded by self-appointed spokespeople and "allies" who do not always have the best interests of the victim class at heart, and may even be competing with each other at cross-purposes, for dominance within the political sphere of issues surrounding that class, and at the class's expense.[6]
