Anger is a gift. – Zack de la Rocha
Some have said that anger is a gift from the gods. Others have said that anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God.
Anger, however, is one hue of emotion in scope of a vast spectrum of human emotions. And within its own hue, anger has many shades, many nuances, many degrees of light and dark mixed in with many other colors of human emotion.
It can be said, then, that anger is as natural as it it is in our nature, being one part of a multitude that makes up a prism of our humanity as well as of our natural world.
Anger, in context of evolution and of Survival of the Fittest, would have been an essential asset where it concerned Life pushing to greater heights in development to where anger could catalyze human civilization. I do not mean to insinuate that anger alone holds that power to establish social order, but I certainly do believe and so mean to say that it is an essential element to make way for order in the midst of chaos because anger withstands opposition and because anger is not complacent.
As a motivating factor, anger is profound. To witness injustice and discern injustice for what it is does not leave one, I don’t imagine, without a feeling of anger. To recognize that things that ought to have been done were left undone where it concerns work, families, friends, and the greater world around us is to rarely be untouched by anger. Even in religious myth where man is said to be created in his creator’s image, the creator is not said to be complacent when wrongs are committed. That same creator is said to experience wrath. Even the deity experiences anger.
Anger, when experienced, often means that something is awry and that we ought not let circumstances go further awry. Anger motivates us to recognize the problem, think about the problem, talk about the problem, and ultimately act on the problem. Anger allows us to conquer fear which otherwise holds us back and to seek a solution. Anger awakens us to our own power to fight, to protect, and to change the tide.
A world without anger, in my view, would indicate either a perfect world or else a world gone stagnant. The inverse, is true, however, that a world of anger wreaks havoc on all, but anger properly channeled can be an incentive to do much good just as anger for the sake of anger and anger that is as uncontrolled as untamed fire can destroy much good.
For good reason, anger is often compared to fire, just as other potent emotions such as love, joy, and hope are frequently compared to this heat-based, this kinetic, motion driven element. Anger, like other such powerful emotions, exists to empower, and anger does empower when controlled and manipulated to serve a worthy purpose, whatever “worthy” entails. More so, like a fire, forceful emotions, such as anger, can shed light in the darkness, move others to feel and to be inspired to do something to remedy circumstances, to make the most of time, and to make their mark on this world, that is, on their world.
After all without any anger, would the hopeless seek hope when their circumstances held them so far down? Without anger, would there have been liberation for women, for minority groups, and for all who might, at sometime, identify as being among The Oppressed? Without anger to at least temper, would any of these have reason to care when cruel circumstances allow for neither joy nor love alone to fuel a spirit of honorable resistance?
Anger, though, does not mean, necessarily, anger directed at others, but it certainly can mean anger directed at an existing problem. Anger needs not to constitute violence, riots, fits of fury, rages, or other such effects of anger when anger goes without check, turning itself loose without restraints of self-control, moderation, thus running wild under excess.
Still, I feel it: I feel anger where it concerns the crime of rape, where it concerns unjust accusation and suppression. I most definitely experience anger of some degree where it concerns waste in government and other institutions which exist to serve society, not to be served by society, when such clearly fail in meeting the present needs of the present population. Still, I do not feel anger at a specific politician, a specific personality, or even a specific institution, but I feel anger at detrimental collective mindsets, myself operating under the notion that war needs not to be against flesh and blood but rather attitudes and ideals which can haunt a population of any size and of any sort.
And by this anger, I find it in myself to speak out and to act in a way which addresses the real issues, to reform myself and my world. Not only that, I hope that my doing so might, by example, further empower others to see a problem as a problem when it really is a problem, addressing a given problem however they can. In so doing, many might move, in discipline, in self-control, in courage and good faith and even in love, for justice and for the right thing
In this way, I find it reasonable to believe that anger, when directed responsibly and while joining forces with both good and worthy emotions and aspirations, might accomplish righteousness whether it be in the Spirit of God or, in its most noble and regenerated state, the Spirit of Man.
