The Allure of Anger

 I believe that if anything, the 21st Century might eventually be coined "The Age of Anger" in much the same way that the 19th century was characterizes as an age of "Sexual Repression". When I say, "Age of Anger", I am talking about how political discourses (in social media and so on) are becoming more and more mired in bitterness, resentment, cynicism or lashing out. Some people might (and do, in fact) suggest that this is an expression of the loss of manners and mores in Western societies. I have a different hypothesis, and that is that anger is becoming an industry that actually makes people money, from advocates who sue for the rights of their angry clients, to filmmakers who milk human resentment in the form of violent blockbusters. Anger sells in the same way that "sex"' is said to sell so many decades ago. The industry of anger, like the industry of love or romance, serves something. Whether it's the reinforcement of boundaries between one nation and another, or the emboldening of a military complex, anger narratives establish strong boundaries between one place and another, setting up lines of transgression.
   I even reflect on this: of all human emotions that might bring a person toward a spiritual practice, which is the most common? Is it sadness? Jealousy? Lust? Anger? I believe that anger must contend for one of the highest places in this ranking, simply because anger threatens to destroy so much more than the other emotions. Even "jealousy" might be less destructive if we see it as something like "protecting" the things we care about the most by wanting to covet those things to ourselves (or something similar).Stories of craving and attachment may point to equally destructive outcomes, but somehow many are lead to feel that attractions are not as destructive as anger, or might redeem themselves through the object of attraction. As Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us in his own book about Anger, the face of the angry person is one of the most unappealing sights imaginable, and looking at one's own contorted angry face can be enough to scare everyone away from anger itself. The threat of anger necessitates remedies (and quick ones) more than other emotions.
  This entry is not designed to say, "anger is bad" so don't feel angry. What I am driving at is the way anger is thought to draw a person towards, say, meditation, more so than feelings like sadness.