Light and dark anger

2019-07-22

• I thought Anger is a form of self-pity.

• On the other hand, one friend believes "Anger is a driving force

• And the friend is using his anger as a driving force to produce results.

• I mean, there is good in anger.

• What is the difference between good anger and bad anger?

  • Parable of the Heat

  • Bright, sunny, dry, dry, dry, hot.

  • Dark, cloudy, damp, dank, and hot.

  • Both are "hot," but the sensation you get is much different.

  • Good anger resembles the former.

  • Some of the bad anger resembles the latter.

    • Some bad angst not so bad.

  • Parable of the Steam Engine

  • The friend, who is motivated by anger, believes he can "change" the object of his anger

    • Meaning "one can ameliorate what is the object of one's anger," not "make something else the object of one's anger."

  • So anger is the driving force that creates "action to change".

  • Zimmering people believe that they cannot "change" the object of their anger.

    • We're not discussing here whether it can or cannot actually be changed, we're just talking about personal perception.
    • The belief that "I can't change it" is formed by the actual experience of "I can't change it".
      • → learned helplessness

  • This is like [steam engine

    • When heat is applied, water turns into steam, creating pressure.
    • When this pressure is properly directed, power can be produced, which is the steam engine.
    • On the other hand, if there is no place for pressure to escape, it will damage the kettle
      • Worst case scenario, it bursts.
    • The metaphor of "degassing"
      • Pressure drops as heightened pressure sputters out.
      • The goal is to reduce pressure, so I'm not thinking about whether or not that spewed force will be useful motive power.
      • It's easier to just let it blow out than to use it as a power source, so it flows that way.

relevance - Three kinds of anger and usefulness - Anger at what can be changed

This page is auto-translated from /nishio/明るい怒りと暗い怒り using DeepL. If you looks something interesting but the auto-translated English is not good enough to understand it, feel free to let me know at @nishio_en. I'm very happy to spread my thought to non-Japanese readers.