To be angry is to stand in opposition to something. You’re angry at the Healthcare bill, or at the price of gas. To not be angry is to, under the majority of circumstances, stand idly and blindly in favor of everything that transpires in life. Anger constitutes a desire for change, and that desire has shaped history for centuries.
Sometimes, being angry is liberating. Take, for example, adolescence. Adolescents are commonly depicted as always angry towards their parents, or the ‘establishment.’ Adolescents feel like the state of affairs in their household must be changed, and thus they are angry. Whether their ideas for change are logical or correct is a whole other story, however the fact of the matter is that they are standing up for what they believe in. This trait is invaluable in a society that favors individualism and independence. In reality, anger is the product of opposition. When someone opposes something, they usually feel anger. Peaceful opposition, like the kind cherished by Gandhi, is possible as well. And even Gandhi was angry, to an extent, at how his society operated at the time. They must begin revolutions to change the world. Anger stems from revolution.
I will not argue that intense levels of anger are righteous. In fact, ridiculous amounts of negative emotion are correlated, scientifically, to depression and anxiety. However, anger has its place in society; it fuels change. When an injustice to society occurs, people rage and infuriate. If people did not stand opposed to injustices, injustices would triumph over society.
Most importantly, anger does not always mean against people. Anger is a simple emotion, with many different means of expression. One can be angry against a problem in society, or may be angry at the state of society. Minorities may demand civil rights through displaying their displeasure to the rest of society. They are angry. Females wishing for voting rights showed anger. Martin Luther King Jr. showed anger, not to a furious, but a reasonable degree, and changed the scope of American society for the better.
Anger is an emotion that arises when one person is upset or displeased. How someone directs that anger is up to them. In most cases, anger is shown as correlated to violence. But, in reality, anger is everywhere. When one thinks of anger, they think of such events akin to Shays’ Rebellion, or the murderous French Revolution. When I think of anger, I think of Robin Hood, angry at how the rich acted and how the poor are treated. I think of people like MLK Jr. and Gandhi who, without violence, acted and changed the world. They took their anger and directed it towards peaceful protest. There are ways of expressing anger without killings and violence.
Think of how the world would look without opposition, without anger. Everyone would be happy and in compliance with laws and regulations, no matter how forceful or immoral these laws may be. The people would live their lives regardless, and they would have no views other than the views of the government. Now, when I think of a world with both happiness and anger, I think of a world that allows for individual views and the right to stand up for what one believes in. Anger motivates people to act. People deserve to be angry from time to time, if it means that they can express their opposing views to others. If one is dissatisfied with their country’s current state of affairs, I believe it is the people’s right to display their dissatisfaction. And I would, personally, be angry if the citizens of said country didn’t have this right.
