I have heard it said that Anger is not actually an emotion but a response to what has happened. I reject this notion entirely as every emotion including anger can be played out some kind of response to what has happened; if this is true, then does this mean that all emotions are merely responses to what has happened? Of course not. It must therefore be a stupid notion. By way of demonstration, this paragraph is proof of the fact that rather than being a response, I have chosen to be angry at the statement and made a value judgement about it. Can you actually have a response to something which has not happened?
Whilst it is true that emotions can be a response, the beast which shouts "I" at the heart of the kosmos in an effort to bring the "yummy, yummy, yummy" closer and push the "not yummy" further away, has a massive amount of agency in the decision process to determine what those responses are. Furthermore, an emotion as a materiel of the human heart can be generated before an event has happened. Abstract notions of love and hate can be the result of circumstance but they can also be be the result of active decision. To that end, Anger operates like any other emotion and can very much be the result of an election. One can very much choose to be angry.
If fear is the mind killer and the anesthetic of bravery, because it quietens and deadens someone into inaction then anger is a kind of cardinal opposite. Anger is one of the twin flames which burns inside the human heart, which fires up a person into action; with the other being the flame of hope. Of themselves, flames are neither good nor bad, because the true measure of goodness or badness is fitness of products which result.
The broadest telos of anger is that its job is to turn wants and desires, needs and wishes, into action which occasions work. Power is the ability to do work and anger as a deliberate choice, is a consequence of the exercise of some kind of power. Of all the elements of Kakosynaisthima, Anger appears to be the most active. Whereas boredom, pain, loneliness, poverty, longing, frustration and even fear all happen within an individual and are mostly confined within that individual, the results of anger are turned outward and the effects also tend to happen to other people. Just like fire of itself is neither good nor bad, neither is anger. Just like fire can keep someone warm, do work by boiling water make steam trains work or spin electricity generators, or can burn a house down, anger has the power to do work and whether or not that work is useful, useless, constructive or destructive, is a matter of where that work is being directed. Also just like fire, anger tends to burn from the fuel of the other elements.
Anger which burns from the fuel of boredom, tends to refine it into diligence. Boredom and its close relative ennui, tend to stand in the face of things that need to be done, and then not do it. Again the question of what kind of work comes into play, as an angry kind of boredom can result in random vandalism. The stereotypical bored and angry child or teenager who engages in graffiti, or minor property damage, or passive loitering with no purpose, are the most visible signs of an outworking of anger from boredom. Refined properly though and that anger invents legitimate projects, such as curiosity or the creation and invention of some arts.
Anger which burns from the fuel of pain, tends to refine it into revenge. When pain causes injury, anger directed to eject the cause of that pain is the natural result. The problem here is that directing anger is not necessarily something which people are skilled at. The beast which shouts "I" at the heart of the kosmos in an effort to push the "not yummy" further away, thinks itself the hero of its own story. In burning the fuel laid down by pain, the beast often discards and burns any notion that what is doing is either just or unjust. When pain demands a salve to sooth it but the beast is either unaware or actively does not care about the consequences because it has convinced itself that it is righteous by its own standards, then the flame of anger is only likely to create more pain and continue to fuel the fire. It is really only when the object causing the pain has been removed that someone can move on.
Anger which burns from the fuel of loneliness, has no obvious ends by which the loneliness ends. One can attempt to fill the void by finding community and commonwealth other people, but if anger is the manufactured response then the more likely outcome is by trying to fill the void by filling with the the unlimited lusts and wants that the heart generates. Generally speaking, lusts and wants that the heart generates as demand drivers fall into an ungluttable market for which there is no end. What do we find at the centre of someone who has tried to satisfy every desire by all means necessary? We generally find someone who has discovered that they like everyone else are uniquely alone in the kosmos.
Anger which burns from the fuel of poverty, is met with only two genuine ends. Either the person works to change their circumstances or joins a collectively to collectively change the kosmos, or the the person works to change their circumstances by stealing from others; or the person learns to accept their conditions as being independent from their value as a person. Poverty exists as a direct result of the fact that the marketplace for the control of money and power always results in an exactly square ledger. All of the great pushes for democracy, the expansion of the franchise, the winning of civil rights, and the blessings of a welfare state which actually apportions the rewards of the economy to a greater number of people than merely a select few, has always been the result of anger which has resulted in the collective change the kosmos. Anger because we wish to secure some kind of basic dignity or equality in some way, is more often than not, justified.
Anger which burns from the fuel of longing, can refine it into envy. Envy as the refined product takes the basic desire to fulfil various needs and wants, and boils it beyond the point of frenzy. At the most extreme point, it turns what once was longing into envy and then turns the flame outwards to scorch others and take the objects of those needs and wants, maybe by any means necessary. Envy and its driver of covetousness, is simply expressed as the statement that if you have something that I want, then I will either take what you have or I will invent designs so that you can not have it. On the other hand Anger which burns from the fuel of longing, can refine it into the building of commonwealth and community.
Anger which burns from the fuel of frustration, is possibly the most productive of the lot. Frustration which suggests that someone can not do something, which is then burned in the flames of anger either creates a work of success caused through directed effort, or failure which results in someone coming to the sometimes awful realisation that they have found yet another limit to their powers in the kosmos. The beast which shouts "I" at the heart of the kosmos upon burning the fuel of frustration in anger and the failing at what it wanted to do must either find the will within to try again or come face to face with the fact that a being limited in space and time and power is in fact limited in space and time and power.
Anger which burns from the fuel of fear, generally tends to have no objective attached beyond getting rid of the source of fear. Fear is the notion that a thing, circumstance, or person, has the power to harm, damage, or even kill you. Fear itself as a dumb indicator that a thing might go wrong, is not particularly a good indicator of the wisdom which someone might need to take necessary actions to deal with the thing. Anger therefore, when directed at a thing wants to get rid of the thing, when directed at a circumstance wants to get rid of the circumstance, and when directed at a person wants to get rid of the person. The danger is that Anger fulled by fear, shortens the event horizon to the point of extreme myopia such that in wanting to get rid of the power to harm, damage, or even kill them, wants to deal back similar or a greater degree of harm, damage, or even death back at them. All too often we see someone who in a perceived state of fear, burn that fear into anger, and actively try to hurt the people that were close to them; all while claiming that they were always in the right.
Anger because we have been wronged in some way, may or may not be justified. Indeed that notion itself of what is just and what flows out of that into justice is instructive. Anger which results in a just outcome, means that the flame of action has burnt through the dross and refined the situation into a proper acceptable product. Anger which serves only to burn through everything and which destroys anything which might have been good, while it might achieve perfect peace through the destruction of all components, is unlikely to produce anything of real lasting value.
Anger because we have lost some kind of advantage in some way, may or may not be justified but is more often than not, not justified. Remember, the beast which shouts "I" at the heart of the kosmos is interminably selfish and because it can see the world from not other standpoint, will invariably think that its cause is just. The problem with this is that the loss of some kind of advantage, is almost always because other people have had to fight tooth and nail for it. It must be said that one of the aims of power once secured, is to retain control of that power. Power of course is the ability to act, to force change, and to do work to bring about some desired outcome.
Of course it must be said that if one can choose to be angry, then one can also choose not to be angry. Choosing not to be angry at something but accepting that a situation is difficult, or that other people are stupid, obnoxious, and daft, or to come to the ghastly revelation of looking at one's self in the mirror of reality and realising that we too can be stupid, obnoxious, and daft, is to realise that anger as a choice, is not necessarily productive. To reject anger as a choice, might require the manufacture and exercise of the harder virtues of patience, kindness, forgiveness, and peace making. Whether the object upon which someone's anger is fixated and which burns towards is a thing, circumstance, organisation, system, or person, then setting aside anger and choosing a different course of action might be a better thing to do. If one chooses to remain angry and yell at something or someone, then the chances of that thing ot person turning around and coming to wild agreement with you, are lower than any genuine attempt to try to reach reconciliation and restoration. The response to someone who is angry at you, is usually one of the other elements of Kakosynaisthima, such as anger, fear, frustration, or even loneliness or boredom.
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