For forty days the Church calls us to restraint. Less food, fewer dispersions. Lent invites Christians to examine the movements of the heart and, as we do so, it is natural to assume that emotion, like hunger which also presses for satisfaction, must be carefully observed and tuned.
This premise jars against our present climate. We live in an age of emotional incontinence, where intense reactions are performed and amplified in every corner of the internet. Worse, intensity is often mistaken for authenticity, which is therefore turned on its head. Public life has adapted to this. Activists select images, isolate a tear or another easily readable symbol, and accumulate shocks until repetition confers authority. Suffering inundates campaigners’ strategies, eager to distil the rawest moments into conveniently curated clips that press these marketed images into policy. Grief and guilt, among other feelings, are converted into instruments.
