I did not know about the National Customer Rage Study, but I was not surprised to learn that we American consumers (and voters and neighbors and maybe church members) are madder than ever (here and here). We are sadly divided in so many ways.

So why the rage, and exactly what is “rage”? Why are customers so angry? It turns out that it is not so much shopping – online or in person – that makes us mad, it is trying to fix a problem when there is something wrong with what we buy. “The study found that 77% of consumers experienced a problem with a product or service in the past 12 months. This is a record high and more than double the share reported in 1976.” Part of the problem is having to navigate a labyrinth of chatbots and call centers before you can speak with a human being who 1) might know what you are talking about and 2) can do something about it. It takes a click to buy and an hour or more on hold to just begin to fix a problem.

Now, we’ve all groused about lousy customer service or muttered under our breath about long waits and inefficiencies. But the rage the Rage Study is talking about is something else. It’s the authors of the study call “uncivil behavior.”  Specifically:

• 15% of Americans admit to personally engaging in uncivil behavior in the past year toward a business with whom they experienced some kind of sociopolitical or values conflict,
• A majority – 55% – of our fellow citizenry believe customer uncivility is increasing, and 28% cite the “moral decay of society” as the primary reason for this trend – more than twice any other cause.
• Nearly one-fifth of customers believe that making verbal threats, making physical threats, making fun of/mocking a customer service rep, and cursing/using profanity are either civil behaviors or that “it depends on the circumstances.”

20% of us consider that making verbal threats, making physical threats, making fun of/mocking a customer service rep, and cursing/using profanity are either civil behaviors or that it depends on the circumstances. That is, verbal and physical threats, mocking, cursing, and using profanity are considered to be uncivil behavior, acts of rage, by 80% of us. 15% of us admit to such rage. Rage isn’t grumbling, it’s physical and verbal violence. Rage is growing and rage is addictive.

Human rage is nothing new. Cain, the first older brother, was raging mad at Abel, the first younger brother. The Hebrew word translated as “rage” in the Old Testament (Proverbs 19:3, for example) is defined as “storming indignation.” The Greek word used in the New Testament for “raging” (Acts 26:11) is defined as “madly obsessed.”

Chatbot AI answers can’t calm our storming indignation. A call center employee reading from a soothing script cannot satisfy our mad obsession with a broken gadget.

I don’t know what hormones rage excites, but there seems to be something addictive about it. Not only do we grow more and more abusive of hapless service reps, we vote for rage-inciting politicians and attach ourselves to rage-promoting podcasters and raged-filled preachers. We don’t seem to be able to help ourselves.

What shall we do? The words of the not-often-sung verse 7 of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” are:

O come, O King of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind.
Bid all our sad divisions cease
and be yourself our King of Peace.

Rage has hold of us, but even so, rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O captive Israel.

Maybe Advent speaks to all our sad divisions.