Anger: A Glitch in the Human System

 You get less angry as you get smarter. — Orange Book

The emotion of anger is exceedingly mysterious to me — the whole unfolding from annoyance to frustration to out-right anger makes a person dangerous and unknown to his very self. I am an adult so I have experienced this progression, in its many disguises, and I can humbly assure you it is very hard to manage and overcome — particularly depending on one’s upbringing and/or current environment & culture.

One of the greatest writers, Lucius Seneca, a stoic philosopher, wrote a whole book on Anger, a piece from it:

The point is to know what anger is; for if it comes into being against our will, it will never yield to reason—indeed, any movements that occur independent of our will cannot be overcome or avoided, like shivering when we’re sprinkled with cold water, or disgust at touching certain things, or the way our hair stands on end at bad news, or the dizziness that comes over us when we look down from a cliff.

In summary, since anger is an emotion, a mere fault in our minds — it can be healed by instruction, by self-awareness.

Constant reminders as you depart your house: “I will encounter many people who are devoted to drink, many who are lustful, many who are ungrateful, many who are greedy, many who are driven by the demons of ambition.” All such behaviors you will regard as kindly as a doctor does his own patients. Not because you are a doctor, but because you understand the human mind and the consequences of being carried away by anger to extremes and consequently to remorse and regret.

Advice from an 80 year old to the youth I once came across: “Avoid anything that will cause you remorse. It is a disease to the mind that is hard to heal.”

"The greatest remedy for anger is delay." — Seneca

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Cancelo Alvarez

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