“I can feel your anger. It gives you focus. It makes you
stronger.” – Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Star Wars III:
Revenge of the Sith
The above quote
is obviously part of a larger dialogue and must not be interpreted out of
context. Anger is largely seen as a negative emotion. One that supposedly stops
you from thinking rationally, causes harm to you and your near and dear ones
physically and mentally Time and again, we’ve been told by our scriptures, holy
men, Gurus, and priests that Anger must be kept in control all the time. That we
should never give in to it. Even the all-powerful Yoda of Star Wars says ‘Fear
leads to Anger, Anger leads to Hate, Hate leads to Suffering’. Rhonda Bryne
simplifies things further by categorizing negative and positive emotions in her
rather generic table in The Secret. No prizes for guessing where Anger finds
itself.
I beg to differ
on this generalist and needless admonishment of this much-abused emotion that we call Anger.
Anger is as important an emotion as any other. It has many synonyms such as
Fury, Rage, Wrath, Indignation, Livid, Seethe all of which exemplify the degree
of anger that an individual or a group may feel. But on the whole, it is one
of the most necessary emotions a human being experiences. It is a perfectly
healthy state of mind as it helps us cut through pretty easily across what works for us and what doesn’t. It helps in being taken seriously. On
innumerable occasions, people are pushed to a point by various others in their
lives where they just explode into an uncontrollable rage. Their tolerance
levels are tested to the maximum and then guess what happens. They snap. So
anger begins where tolerance ends. For
example, what triggered the mass movement against the perpetrators of Nirbhaya.
Mass Anger and Public Outrage. Had everybody been tolerant about it, I doubt if justice
would have prevailed.
This morning’s newspaper screams with an article on the
International outrage that has erupted over the hanging of two minor girls who
were first raped and then hanged on a tree branch. Do you really believe that
approaching such a heartless crime with candles and debates is going to work?
Absolutely not. Anger is the key. It is what will give you the focus to stop
whats going on. Whats more, it will instill fear in the hearts of such
criminals. Also, what leads to Large scale Civil Wars and revolutions is Public
Anger (Egypt for example). When the supressed will tolerate no more. When the downtrodden choose to rise. All of these are primarily driven by anger. The bottom-line is that the seed of rebellion and justice
is sown by Anger and that it is a deep-rooted aversion for any of the seven
sins and beyond.
In another context, Anger pumps you
up to do your best in a given situation because you have reached a point where
you are driven by a certain need to either get even (read revenge), or to
ensure that this does not happen to you again. Anger pushes you into accepting
challenges which normally you would not take if you were thinking rationally
and more often than not, it fuels you to overcome that challenge. So there you
go, Anger aint so bad after all. And mind you, if you don’t get angry, it means
you are not human. Even the mostly highly evolved beings do get angry. What they
do with their anger is another story altogether. Even the Gods get angry so why shouldnt human beings???
Let me end this article by
telling you this. Don’t ever get angry on yourself for getting angry. Welcome
the emotion just like you welcome all other emotions. Your anger is trying to tell you something that you wouldnt otherwise listen to. And yes, I do agree with Palpatine,
anger makes you strong, it makes you focused and most importantly, it shows
that you are human and you are not to be taken for granted all the time.
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