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The Purpose of Anger
If you look around at the world today or spend any time on social media, you’ll see a lot of things to be angry about. If you don’t see anything that makes you angry yourself, you’ll still be hard-pressed not to lay eyes on more than a few angry people. There’s an unending litany of horrible events being presented to us to garner our rage because it keeps us interested — it focuses our attention while simultaneously distorting it, like looking through the rounded bottom of a semi-opaque plastic cup; anger presents tunnel vision as a symptom and that keeps us glued to our screens. It keeps us clicking.
Most people don’t stop to consider their anger. They pause to think about the things that make them angry, with alarming frequency (and volume) — but they’re not stopping to consider what purpose it serves. They’re not spending time deciding if their anger is serving or hurting them. There are reasons for this. For most people, anger feels good — it releases adrenaline and dopamine. Anything that feels good, we tend to assume is good for us — but I’m here to posit that anger has one and only one valid purpose. Using it for anything other than what it was evolutionarily intended for is harmful to you and everyone around you.
I find nature to be one of the greatest teachers. Spend some time watching any wild momma bear with a couple of their children and you’ll see them snap at their…
