Anger and Politeness

Anger, like all other human emotions, has practical uses. We evolved to have a mental stance where we are aggressive, hostile and ready for conflict because we just had to.

We currently live in a very polite, very civilized time, at least relative to other times in human history. We have grown accustomed to smiles, how-are-yous, how-do-you-dos. While this is all well and good, politeness is more often than not a facade that people put up to protect themselves from conflict and from aggression.

There is no one out there who has not felt the need to be angry, but has chosen not to be, all because of the pressures of politeness. There is a time and a place for everything; however, if one is convinced that anger is justified, that one is within right to be angry, then one has to be. Our subconscious knows instinctively what is better for us; when the 'fight' is triggered in the fight-or-flight response, then that is because the subconscious has adjudged the situation worthy of conflict.

Anger can also inspire; imbued with a sense of aggression, the human being can do amazing things - as long as the emotion is in control.

Which leads to another point; this is not a condoning of useless, wasteful anger. Anger is an emotion; like all emotions, it is subject to the vagaries of daily life. Moods, mental conditions, chemical imbalances, dietary effects, all this contributes to a person's 'groundedness' - the level at which his emotional responses corresponds to emotions.

There are those who would shout at the television, or cuss at a slightly errant driver up ahead, even though both situations should not necessarily evoke such responses. These are signals of a person who has lost some of his grounding; he is standing on a fragile emotional state, and simple frustrations evoke intense responses from him.

Here again we come to politeness. Politeness has a lot to do with politics - on personal, professional, any kind of level - that the polite human society will shun anyone who exhibits impoliteness. It is our way of protecting ourselves from those on the vestiges, the 'dangerous' elements, for what does not follow the polite norm is dangerous to the society it inhabits.

Therefore, one must at all times control anger so that one can derive usefulness from it.