Anger can be positive

There are many who think that anger is a negative emotion.  This is generated by the observation that many acts carried out in a state of anger are destructive and negative. It may also be linked to the necessity for human beings to refrain from one of their most historically popular pastimes, that of conducting all out war, due to the total self-annihilation that would occur to the human race should the practice be allowed to continue.  Men and women alike can no longer vent their anger on the battlefield with guns and knives, such as they do in Afghanistan.  It has to be dealt with carefully by therapists, law enforcement agencies and judicial systems in clinics, prison cells and courtrooms.  The horrific evidence of what people are capable of doing to each other under the influence of anger has left us with a somewhat negative attitude towards it.  We are scared of what we are capable of doing in the name of anger whether as individuals or as a society, and are finally being forced to deal with this energising emotion in a fashion which is non-violent. 

The initial reaction, and a tendency that is reinforced by counselors, psychologists and anger management programmes around the country, is to find ways to suppress it.  Trouble is the anger will remain latent until it is physically dealt with, resulting in either a positive or negative outcome.  Negative outcomes of suppressed anger are evident every week in news headlines of murders, rapes and beatings.  There are many positive actions that can be traced back to the same adrenal source that drives the negative actions associated with anger.  We live in a society where the energy of aggressive A type personalities is rewarded in the workplace and the business world.  Those with the ability to compete are those who succeed.  Competition involves getting worked up about the achievement of rivals and trying to surpass them.  Competition involves aggression, stealth, focus and determination, all the characteristics of a wild cat stalking game.  At the very instant that the target is in reach the competitor must strike hard and fast to capture the prey.  Prior to winning a race, landing a contract, selling a product, adrenaline runs high.  It is this adrenaline that drives the event to completion.  It is this adrenaline that is also associated with anger.  People who succeed are those people who have learnt to channel their natural anger into constructive pursuits.  Those who don't succeed and those who are young and still learning how to achieve, are more prone to irrational and destructive outbreaks of anger.  Adrenaline is a hormone we have evolved to do service for us, it is not a leftover from a previous stage in our evolution.  The hormones that drive anger are the hormones that drive motivation.  Failure to recognise the positive value of adrenaline and encouraging it to be suppressed rather than expressed leads to it being bottled up.  In that state only a tiny trigger might be required for it to all come out in an ugly uncontrollable mess. 

Our duty to ourselves, then, has been to try to find out more about human aggression, and find alternative means of expressing it.  Some have been led to believe that we can no longer have such aggressive feelings and have sought to negate it from the human emotional repertoire.  Others have learnt to channel it into competitive sports, or business.  Rock music has become the chief means by which people have sought to understand it better.  With its hard, constant and sometimes aggressive beat and loud guitar riffs, rock music tore away at the sensibilities, removing the emotional gloss of previous generations and cementing anger at the cornerstone of youth culture.   Youth exploded against the rigidity and the shortcomings of their own culture, and music became the ideal medium for the expression of emotion, especially anger.  They were able to vent their anger by rebelling against their parents and blasting loud music through their ears.  To quote from Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols: 'Anger gives you energy'.  That energy has been channeled into the rapidly accelerated period of history we call the Information Age, during which the world has become virtually so 'small' that it is almost all one society with humans being measured by the same standards and speaking the same language worldwide.  Jim Morrison sang 'We want the world and we want it now!'  Now, thirty years later we've almost got it. 

Our natural emotions are the greatest of things.  To be able to express them freely is one of the greatest gifts.  As with the other emotions These emotions, happiness, sadness, love and anger are all equally positive in their own way.