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David Gorniak

Bar Tender/ Night Porter/ Aspiring Writer/ Part time philosopher,

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The importance of anger.

When was the last time you were really angry? Angry to a degree where you could not help but do something about that which bought you deep dissatisfaction.I believe that there are two types of anger. The first being destructive anger where it is born out of ignorance and exists for the sake of itself. The second being constructive anger where it is born out of an injustice or dissatisfaction and a will to make a change towards a positive.The question is; in today's world of comforts and distractions are we finding constructive anger increasingly harder to maintain? How far do our dissatisfactions and patience have to be pushed for us to be moved? Are we becoming more and more de-sensitized?Without love we are like robots and the same can be said of anger.

Topics: anger drive emotion injustice philosophy sensitivity
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    Bharath Kumar Kunjibettu 10+

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    Jun 29 2012: I have personally not achieved much out of anger . Sometimes it is better to assess what you have achieved out of being angry .

    In rare cases we have seen some people are motivated by their anger too. If your anger is going to benefit your society and you , then you can be angry .

    If you feel your anger has ruined you , then it is high time you resort to some sort of meditation or Anger management course. Many of them are going to use the latter path since that is what the society needs as of now . Calm and relaxed folks with lot of enthusiasm at the same time ..

  • Sunny Klair

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    Jun 29 2012: Release of anger releases suppressed motions and calms your mind regardless if it is in a violent way or non violent way.
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    Ryan Alexander

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    Jun 29 2012: As you stated in your response to one of the comments earlier, I believe the constructive anger would be passion. With this newly defined definition I will address both passion and anger. First, anger true anger I believe stems from fear. If one can identify their anger it is in my experience that it typically can be traced back to a fear of an uncertain event, humiliation ect.

    Passion on the other hand. Is something that I feel is dissipating with social networking and a large ill informed public. As a member of the youth (21 years old maybe still considered a member of the youth?) I see it all the time. Someone will post something about their views and take a step back glory in their noble pursuits towards that specific topic. Not taking the extra step to actually think deeply about what exactly they are blindly posting about.

    That is not enough! Spreading the word is great but action is what the world needs! I tell my peers all the time. If you really care....DO SOMETHING! Physically get up and do it. I feel as if there is a De-sensitization of our society. There are in fact people that are driven by passion but a large portion of our society seems to fail to take that extra step towards production.

    It's a bad excuse but we get caught up in our lives. Bills to pay, relationships to kindle and families to take care of and we lose sight of our ambition to make a difference. Like all my thoughts, I think that this problem must be solved with education. Promote problem solving and critical thinking as young as possible. With a world of thinkers it'll be hard to stifle positive change!

  • Barry Palmer 50+

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    Jun 27 2012: I am an angry person. I have always had a bad temper. Anger is my default emotion and it comes to me quickly and easily. To live in society, I have learned to control it, but that control has come at a huge cost.

    For years, I controlled my anger by suppressing it, and this resulted in suppressing almost all of my emotions. I became robot-like. When I realized this, I stopped suppressing and started to enjoy life again. But the anger became a problem. Eventually, I found a balance. This took a great deal of self examination and self discipline. "You can't control whether you are angry but you can try to control the result of your anger." I wish someone had taught me this when I was young.

    My anger usually erupts from two causes. When I get repeatedly frustrated, the inner anger builds until I shout at the world and, often, at myself. This is childish, but I have not been able to completely control it without causing side effects that are even more destructive, so I just let it out and apologize later.

    The second cause is a perceived injustice, and not always against myself. I have learned to control this anger and use it to positive ends. This form of anger is very valuable. This form of anger can be used to back down a predator or start a revolution, or perhaps lead to election reform.

    There is another form of positive anger which most of us, myself included, have never experienced, and that is the rage of battle, when all the decisions have been decided and there is nothing left to do but attack the enemy.

    I can guarantee you that there are no experts on anger, especially myself.

  • Random Chance 30+

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    Jun 27 2012: At its root anger is a coverup for fear.
    When channeled, controlled and directed, it becomes something else.

    All things must transform.

    Humans it seems, must be pushed, coaxed or somehow moved, deeper and past the fear that freezes them into the fear that moves them.

    Then, finding courage in the last four letters of the word courage will suffice.
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    Maria Alexandra Radu

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    Jun 27 2012: I think that constructive anger is not much of a feeling of fury but of a feeling that you want to change so you can overcome the thing that makes you hateful in the first place. That constructive anger helps us change ourselves and progress because we want to replace that feeling with a positive one, such as being proud of our achievement. I don't think that people like being angry or want to be, it just happens when we are surrounded of so much sadness, injustice and inequality, that is why they use this anger to drive their feelings into doing something constructive and changing the status quo.

  • Rhona Pavis 50+

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    Jun 26 2012: Anger is just another of those normal emotional reactions. Perhaps it is caused by an absence of sufficient facts regarding the situation that causes the anger. It seems important to distinguish the feeling from the action taken in response to the feeling. One can convert their anger at childhood poverty into becoming excessively wealthy or convert that anger into tearing down people who are wealthy or other possible responses. There is the anger. There is the expression of anger. The cause/effect relationships in anger are not always clear. If I say, "You make me angry" or "What you are doing is making me angry" that could be a total misplacement of the true cause of the anger. Sometimes people try to control the behavior of others and become angry when the other will not allow themselves to be controlled. I wonder how often, when a person feels anger, they truly know and understand the actual cause of the feeling of anger within them. People like to point outward. Perhaps we ought to be pointing to ourselves to find the source of our anger.

  • Ramkumar M

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    Jun 26 2012: I WouLd Say Be AngRy When You Should BE...
    If It Heps The Other PersOn.....!!
    Then Be Angry ......
    When Your Anger Goes Out Of Control...
    Close your Eyes Count SlowolY From 1 to 30 And Do That Which needs to be Done...
    By tHen You Would Be Able to MAke a LoGiCal DeciSoN...
    The Scars Of AnGEr TakEs a Very LoNg Time To HEaL...

    So Use Ur anGer WisEly....

    You knOw We need A ReasOn To Be AngRy But We DoNT Need A ReAsoN To
    Be Happy....

    We Can Just be happy....


    So

    Make Your Anger ExPENSive and Make Your Smile CheaPEr
    Like The Sun The Air You BreAthe....

    And Just Be HapPy...!!! WiTh a BiG SmiLE On Your Face .......
    You Know Your Have A Smile That Can LiGht Up a 1000 Faces...

    That Can Be The Sun DriViNG aWay The WinTer OF Sorrow...!!!
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    peter lindsay 30+

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    Jun 26 2012: Your question suggests to me that we don't have enough words to describe our emotions. We use ANGER to describe any sort of highly stressed state but they are many and varied
    Petulant anger when you don't get your own way
    Disappointment anger when you see injustice tolerated
    Frustration anger when you fail
    Embarassment anger when you fail infront of others
    The important part is to identify why your angry and whether it is going to achieve anything. You can't control whether you are angry but you can try to control the result of your anger.

    • David Gorniak

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      Jun 26 2012: " You can't control whether you are angry but you can try to control the result of your anger. " - very important point.
      Thanks for the input
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    R H 20+

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    Jun 25 2012: You alluded to a point that I thought significant when you mentioned "In today's world of comforts... ...like robots and the same can be said of anger". Most professional therapists (that I'm aware of) believe that holding in anger is life-threatening. That to ignore, or make excuses for, that you feel anger is worse. I'm not a therapist, but I believe anger comes from somewhere very deep and fundamental within us. To ignore our anger is dangerous because it doesn't go away. It buries itself within to fester and influence our futures. It can make you something you are not. It can be a cancer of the spirit. Anger, to me, is a powerful human experience. And just like any other powerful one, it can be healthy or destructive.

    • David Gorniak

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      Jun 25 2012: I'm really glad that you have understood my question because I am still not sure of it myself. I know anger is a very negative word so maybe passion is more appropiate? Anyway it is something that i will explore further because i think anger has to be understood and respected.
      Thanks for the input
      All the best.
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    Mark Kurtz 20+

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    Jun 25 2012: David, you have an excellent topic. It seems there is a huge amount of anger in the world. You even see violence in TV commercials! And violent toys for children!!!!! My observation of self while angry is not an attractive scene. I agree there are two types, as you say. Anger is lack of control and it may be likened to a stone thrown into a beehive. It is destructive of relationships and can result in very bad behavior. We can be fools caused by ourselves.

    Righteous indignation, on the other hand, is really not anger, but a motivating power for change as you say. Such indignation is not without risk of lowering to anger in an emotional situation, but must be controlled to be a power for good.

    Anger can be caused by or the result of mistreatment or abuse during childhood. You probably are aware of causes. However, we have choice: to accept anger and psychological ill health, or to take action to minimize and adopt self control. Self restraint is a big factor in human relationships that are healthy and beneficial to all. Well developed self mastery is formidable evidence of maturity. We can go through life as a child with "temper tantrums" or proceed through the years with confidence and self respect. If we truly desire good relations, then we are likely to find the power within to achieve good self control, regardless of situations and other people. Self respect is not elitist of founded in bragging, but is an achievement of a feeling of worth. It is part of healthy relationships. How can one respect self when subject to one's lack of self control?

    What is the experience of others who may want to contribute here?
    Peace,
    MK

    • David Gorniak

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      Jun 25 2012: Mark, Thanks for the comment. First off i agree with you that anger is a very destructive force and that righteous indignation is a motivational power. On a purely emotional level however righteous indignation can not be labelled as such. Here the drive behind it is still anger. But the trick is to learn to control one's anger and channel it into what you would call righteous indignation. We should not act out in anger but be moved by it to achieve great things. Also anger without love would be purely negative.i would also suggest a difference between hate and anger. Hate is a purely destructive force which can be born out of an uncontrol of anger. But a proper understanding of anger, to use it and again channel it into a controlled righteous indignation can lead to tremendous things. But remember righteous indignation is still born of that basic human emotion that is anger. Finally i would like to say that be it love or anger, these natural feelings are the biggest emotional drives and the worry for me is that we in the western world with all our technology, comforts and distractions, are forgetting or at least subduing those emotions to a level where we become like robots.So maybe it is not only the subduing of anger that can be utilized in a positive way that is up for debate but also the subduing of love.I hope i have been clear in my answer,all the best.

    • David Gorniak

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      Jun 25 2012: p.s. i am not talking about naturaly angry people from long term causes and damaged psychology. It's more to to do with emotionally balanced people that i have in mind.
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      Frank Clayton

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      Jul 9 2012: I respectfully disagree with your comment that "anger is a lack of control". In my opinion anger is a natural emotion. Rather than "shoulding" on this emotion, I believe we should listen to it and attempt to understand where it derives from that we may better understand ourselves. I understand what you mean when you say that it is difficult to watch a scene in which someone is expressing anger. I can also tell you that as a therapist I have had many people end up on my couch because they did not acknowledge their true feelings - especially men. I have heard it said that anger is depression turned inward. I have found that removing the shame from anger and allowing a person to express it in a healthy manner frees them of guilt, allows them to recognize and deal with the real issue and ultimately helps them themselves wholly.

  • David Gorniak

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    Jun 25 2012: Anger can be very volatile and not everything can be changed for the better through it's drive. Some things are just the way they are and can't be changed. Ignorance of this leads to hate. A person must learn when anger has exhausted it's use.
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