The Seduction of Anger

Hello Everyone, thank you for reading. You know, by now, that I like to joke, and play, and to bring more than a bit of levity to whatever topic I’m discussing, but I’d like to be serious with you for a moment.
I want to ask you a question, and that question is, “How often are you seduced?”
I’m not talking about a sexual seduction, I’m referring to an emotional one. Would you like to know why I ask this question? I ask it because the raw power of emotion has no hold of its seduction. It is easy to see when one is happy, when one is sad, these emotions are visible. Their effects are noticeable. The benefits and costs are known quickly, and just as quickly the transaction is complete and you’ve become balanced one again.
What about anger, though? There is a power to anger. There is this quality to anger that gives you something that happiness does not achieve, and sadness cannot maintain. Anger gives you something that not only boils, but can also simmer. You can sit atop this feeling of anger, like a powder keg, for days, weeks, months, years, all without giving any outward indication that you are growing more and more frustrated, more volatile. We see it in news stories, in terrible tales where men who were seemingly normal, just become vicious, hateful epicenters of wrath and destruction.
It is easy to be brought into the fold of anger. All it takes is a willingness to be angry. How often do we feel offense? How many times a day do we get upset over one inconvenience or another. Just like a seed, all it takes is a tiny bit of anger to grow into something more substantial; something alive and able to develop, to plant its roots deeper down into your heart and blossom forth into righteous fury.
Anger is dangerous because it can be two-fold; it can be both justified, and unjustified. One can become angry over a perceived slight that never existed, but even when the cause is found wanting, the anger remains unabated. It has grown, and it has become self sustaining. That is why even amidst the happy, glowing, loving faces of other people, anger can continue to grow; it can continue to feed itself.
Most anger doesn’t move beyond the frustration stage. We get mad, we yell, we insult, and the anger fades, things become normal. There is so much more to it, however. Anger that is coveted; anger that is fed; it can become something more, far more dangerous. As a culture, we need to defuse that self feeding, otherwise our society will become more aggressive, which is something that concerns me every day.
As a final thought, something Voltaire once said: “Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.”
So keep that in mind should your frustrations start to get the better of you. Until next time, love one another, and be good to each other.
-.Amaris