Around the Western world we are witnessing an age of anger and fear. This is manifested in the vitriol of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's scorched earth presidential campaign and the fear-mongering by the pro-Brexit British. Across the EU, jingoistic messages are also gaining sway, if not respectability.
In "Age of Anger: A History of the Present," Indian writer Pankaj Mishra eloquently examines the sources of frustration, envy and rancor that feed ressentiment — a psychological state caused by unexpressed feelings of envy and hatred — among those who are on the outside looking in. The collateral damage of globalization is a heightened sense of vulnerability that feeds such a state.
"Demagogues of all kinds, from Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan to India's Narendra Modi and France's Marine Le Pen and America's Donald Trump, have tapped into the simmering reservoirs of cynicism and discontent," writes Mishra.