RAGE: In this essay, Maria Alnæs considers some of what the 'difference society' does to people's emotional lives. Rage and powerlessness are a natural result of tightening social security schemes, crushing trade unions, poor schooling and failing support schemes. And even though many people are far better off today than they might have been a few decades ago, there is an embittered feeling that it is possible to be better off, but that someone has cheated you out of it.