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Anger: The Virus That Is Costing Us Too Much Love
We shouldn’t underestimate anger — it’s a risky business.
I’ve noticed that some people are constantly angry. Anger drives them. I’ve actually seen highly functional angry people. I’ve even seen highly inspiring angry people. Anger is an emotion that we’ve all felt at some point, and so anyone can relate to it. Anger is contagious.
I find the main problem with anger is that it is not satisfying. As a musician, I know that music is all about tension and release. Melodies and chord progressions are basically series of notes that diverge from the root, that take us for a ride until it gets too strange, too foreign, too cold… which is when they resolve back to the root note or chord, and we can finally breathe again. Anger is all tension and no release. This is why it often teams up with violence and abuse.
At this point in the argument, we have angry people who attract more angry people, people who cannot quench their thirst, who are doomed to frustration unless they explode into violent fits. So how could angry people ever be functional? Well, anger can fuel us, anger can distract us from exhaustion, anger can keep us going. However, it is a short-term investment: anger is great to get us out of this rut or to propel us to the goal that is front of us. Anger isn’t…