This is exactly what I needed to read today. I really try to not hold onto resentments because I know it's fruitless. But they pop up, unbidden, as you wrote, and the fight is on to beat them back, forgive the person who offended me, and not entertain thoughts of, "If I had the chance, I'd say this to them." That last thought consumes my conscious thinking far more than I ever wanted. Thanks for the great words!
Largely relevant to the present social and political turmoil, both domestically and abroad, are the words of American sociologist Stanley Milgram (1933-1984), of Obedience Experiments fame/infamy: “It may be that we are puppets — puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception [and] awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation.”
There’s relatively little compassion in the world when compared to the very plentiful anger or rage. I’ve noticed myself getting angrier over the last few years, especially about domestic and global injustices, or at least how I perceive them as such. Maybe my anger is largely related to the Internet’s ‘angry algorithm’ sending me the stories, etcetera, it has (unfortunately correctly) calculated will successfully agitate me into keeping the (I believe, overall societally-/socially-damaging) process going thus maximizing the number of clicks/scrolls I’ll provide it to sell to product advertisers.
At least as individuals, we can try to resist flawed human nature thus behavior, however societally normalized it may be, once we become aware of its potential within ourselves. Once cognizant of it, perhaps enough of us could instead perform truly humane acts in sufficient quantity to initiate positive change on a large(r) scale.
This is incredibly timely for me. I'm never really an angry person, but I have been this week. Thank you for reminding us of our power. It is ours to keep or give away, for good or bad.
Interesting article! However, the philosopher in me thinks there is some false attribution of "intention" or "lack of intention" associated with the mental/emotional state of anger. Can a person ever be "anger"??? That seems like a stretch to me, how is a person anger, for all of whatever constitutes anger? Anger is an emotion by definition a temporary state. Do we ruminate on how we've been wronged? Sure, but does that make any one of us anger by identity for all of a person's time? I also think there is a big assumption operating here, called "medical materialism" a term from William James (arguably the first moral psychologist). James asked similar questions about religion in his book, "On the Varieties of Religious Experiences." Put succinctly, the analysis of article using Galen and his medical analysis is questionable at best (similar to medical materialism). Galen's claims of the effects of anger on a human body are hardly confirmed modern science. Moreover, one valid criticism of medical materialism and psychology is that much of the explanatory content (knowledge) needed to support medical materialism [deterministic explanations of physiological/psychological phenomena remain unknown and unexplained {even since Galen's time}]. Therefore, much of this argument is a mere plea to ignorance because we simply lack biological explanations for states such as anger.
It seems to me that rumination and anger can be related but are not equivalent. Anger and rumination but may be correlated but there are many people who rarely suffer from anger. The distinction between functional and performative is problematic; every bit as problematic as telling whether a person is being "authentic" or acting. This distinction is a gross simplification because the helpful/hurtful distinction seems attenuated from causes of anger (whatever those causes may be). The other confusion going on in the article is the difference between collective or social anger at injustice or the personal anger experienced when an individual gets angry at some actual or perceived personal wrong. I do like article because it made me think and anger played a functional role in my life and education (some positive and some negative). I hope this helps with direction or some additional material for more thought, rather than discouraging.
Thank you for sharing this helped me so much ❤️
Needed this!!! Thank you!
My Sincere, Respectful Thanks and Appreciation for this short life saving essay. I truly thank you Thank You THANK YOU.
You've articulated what many of us know (intuite?) internally, but often...
...due to feelings about external triggers and the errant thoughts produced to rationalize the emotional state...
...feel hopeless about because of the illusion of helplessness. You know I am going to share this.
GOD bless (and sustain) You.👍🏾🙏🏾✝️
Seems to be the World's alarm clock ...
The situation is out of control. What I can do is.........
At first, I should control myself.
Thank you for this great newsletter. It is a great resource.
This is exactly what I needed to read today. I really try to not hold onto resentments because I know it's fruitless. But they pop up, unbidden, as you wrote, and the fight is on to beat them back, forgive the person who offended me, and not entertain thoughts of, "If I had the chance, I'd say this to them." That last thought consumes my conscious thinking far more than I ever wanted. Thanks for the great words!
Great articulation of how emotions when trapped don’t serve you.
I have a letting go process I use when my feelings overload my thinking.
I enjoyed reading this. Thank you for sharing!
Unparalleled truth in advice… spot on for me… thank you for verbalizing it for me to comprehend/retain ❤️
Largely relevant to the present social and political turmoil, both domestically and abroad, are the words of American sociologist Stanley Milgram (1933-1984), of Obedience Experiments fame/infamy: “It may be that we are puppets — puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception [and] awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation.”
There’s relatively little compassion in the world when compared to the very plentiful anger or rage. I’ve noticed myself getting angrier over the last few years, especially about domestic and global injustices, or at least how I perceive them as such. Maybe my anger is largely related to the Internet’s ‘angry algorithm’ sending me the stories, etcetera, it has (unfortunately correctly) calculated will successfully agitate me into keeping the (I believe, overall societally-/socially-damaging) process going thus maximizing the number of clicks/scrolls I’ll provide it to sell to product advertisers.
At least as individuals, we can try to resist flawed human nature thus behavior, however societally normalized it may be, once we become aware of its potential within ourselves. Once cognizant of it, perhaps enough of us could instead perform truly humane acts in sufficient quantity to initiate positive change on a large(r) scale.
This is incredibly timely for me. I'm never really an angry person, but I have been this week. Thank you for reminding us of our power. It is ours to keep or give away, for good or bad.
Interesting article! However, the philosopher in me thinks there is some false attribution of "intention" or "lack of intention" associated with the mental/emotional state of anger. Can a person ever be "anger"??? That seems like a stretch to me, how is a person anger, for all of whatever constitutes anger? Anger is an emotion by definition a temporary state. Do we ruminate on how we've been wronged? Sure, but does that make any one of us anger by identity for all of a person's time? I also think there is a big assumption operating here, called "medical materialism" a term from William James (arguably the first moral psychologist). James asked similar questions about religion in his book, "On the Varieties of Religious Experiences." Put succinctly, the analysis of article using Galen and his medical analysis is questionable at best (similar to medical materialism). Galen's claims of the effects of anger on a human body are hardly confirmed modern science. Moreover, one valid criticism of medical materialism and psychology is that much of the explanatory content (knowledge) needed to support medical materialism [deterministic explanations of physiological/psychological phenomena remain unknown and unexplained {even since Galen's time}]. Therefore, much of this argument is a mere plea to ignorance because we simply lack biological explanations for states such as anger.
It seems to me that rumination and anger can be related but are not equivalent. Anger and rumination but may be correlated but there are many people who rarely suffer from anger. The distinction between functional and performative is problematic; every bit as problematic as telling whether a person is being "authentic" or acting. This distinction is a gross simplification because the helpful/hurtful distinction seems attenuated from causes of anger (whatever those causes may be). The other confusion going on in the article is the difference between collective or social anger at injustice or the personal anger experienced when an individual gets angry at some actual or perceived personal wrong. I do like article because it made me think and anger played a functional role in my life and education (some positive and some negative). I hope this helps with direction or some additional material for more thought, rather than discouraging.
Best of Luck!
Cheers,
M. Giove
Thank you for this piece✨
Well articulated thoughtful read…… good points differentiating personal and collective anger
This was amazing! Thank you 🙏