Righteous Anger
For the longest time – why, nearly six decades now – I’ve thought the term righteous anger made sense. Of course we all understand it, and most would nod approvingly at the idea, but in truth, no anger, no matter how justified, is a great asset when examined – often on Monday morning – in the light of peace.
Certainly we might acknowledge that someone had a right to get angry, but a more evolved consciousness would point out that getting angry isn’t usually an effective response, as reasonable as it might seem.
There are instances when anger has moved someone to necessary actions, but in every case, anger was overcoming a state – sloth, ignorance, fear, for example – that could have been altered more effectively in a calm state. Through illumination and education perhaps.
Of course I’m speaking of an ideal, but one can’t discount the importance of reducing the level of anger in our world. It may be that our being five billion over-populated has generated a too-many-rats-in-a-box syndrome, and that is provoking much of the anger. Our systems are overloaded and we don’t recognize it.
Much of the anger we witness is spontaneously expressed. We describe people as exploding. The fight-or-flight feeling suddenly overwhelms, and there either seems no choice or the wrong choice is made. Investigating the cause of conflicts often reveals an equally sudden dissipation of the anger, and the perpetrator confused about his own actions.
There are myriad reasons for the expression of anger and almost as many alternatives. Our society needs to reduce the heroic quality we apply to some anger, and then further explicate the condition so that angry behavior eventually loses its cachet, and then its permission.
Of course it will take a civilization more advanced than ours, but the sooner we begin to defuse our tendencies to get angry and cause anger in others, the more space we’ll leave for joy.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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