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| The Wrath of Achilles by Michael Martin Drooling, 1810 |
The
New York Times recently reported on the rise of “anger rooms.” According to the
article you can now go to clubs in many cities around the world for the sole
purpose of expressing anger by smashing things, breaking things, and more or
less letting it all out.[1] Clubs, baseball bats,
hammers and other assorted objects are made available along with plates, bowls,
windows and effigies of your least favorite political figures for the bashing.
Many participants reported feeling better by manifesting their anger
physically. But in everyday life we cannot typically engage in physically
expressing our anger. So, what can we do with our anger? How can we develop the
virtue of ‘good temper’?
Let’s listen in on Marcus and his students as they discuss anger and its virtuous mean as so called by Aristotle as the ‘good temper.”
“Anger is the poisonous root which overthrows the growth of virtue.” —The Buddha
Elizabeth: “Marcus, tell us, why did you hang up on that lawyer earlier?”
Maureen: “Marcus, you hung up on another lawyer!? Marcus, you always taught us to be more respectful than that!”
Jacob: “So Marcus, you’re human after all.”
Audrey: “That must’ve been fun to watch. I’ve never seen Marcus angry.”
Marcus: “I’m glad to see I’ve become a source of entertainment for you all. And yes, I did hang up on another lawyer, but I wasn’t angry. Getting angry involves losing control. And if anything, I was in complete control. Despite what Elizabeth might’ve thought.”
Elizabeth: “I don’t know if you were angry, per se,
but you weren’t happy.”
Maureen: “Nonetheless, it does sound disrespectful, Marcus.”
Marcus: “There’s a lesson here, if you’ll listen.”
Audrey: “Okay, okay, regale us with your tale of how hanging up on someone was not an expression of anger, and how you were in complete control.”
Marcus: “This lawyer and I are on opposite sides of a very heated case. I began to convey to him that he wasn’t being forthright about the facts in our case. He responded by yelling at me. I told him that if he didn’t stop I was going to hang up. He continued yelling. I gave him one more warning and, yet he continued. The conversation was unproductive, so, I hung up.”
Audrey: “So, in essence, you called him a liar. He then became angry, and started yelling at you. Sounds justified to me.”
Marcus: “I didn’t use the term “liar,” but even if I had does that justify an angry response like yelling at your opponent?”
Elizabeth: “Nope, he lost his cool. As the law is based in logic and rational thinking, there’s very little justification for allowing anger to take control. Allowing anger to take control often causes one to lose focus on the ultimate goal.”
Marcus: “Aristotle said that ‘anger must always be attended by certain pleasure – that which arises from the expectation of revenge. It has been said that anger… “is far sweeter than slow dripping honey, clouding the hearts of men like smoke. It is also attended by a certain pleasure because thoughts dwell upon the act of vengeance, and the images then called up cause pleasure, like the image called up in dreams.’”[2]
Audrey: “I know what you
mean, I have a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction when I am able to take revenge
upon someone who has made me angry. Of course, I must admit, the pleasure never
lasts but I nonetheless savor it, however briefly.”
Marcus: “Audrey, think about what you just said: when someone “made” you angry. That’s the problem with giving into anger, once you give someone else control over your emotions, they’ve won the initial battle. Aristotle believed that some good could come of anger. He felt that it could banish fear and give us confidence to deal with perceived threats. But of course, we should take this commentary in the context of his time, which was likely motivated more by the threat of military escapades, rather than occurrences in everyday life.”
Jacob: “Yes, but didn’t Aristotle also emphasize the importance of ‘good temper’? Which seems to be the virtue we must nurture if we are to control our anger.”
Maureen: “Yes, and if I remember my Nichomachean Ethics correctly, Aristotle thought that one can have too much or too little ‘anger,’ but of course, as always, there is a mean. And for Aristotle the ‘mean’ is ‘good temper.’”
Marcus: “Yes, but I think Aristotle misses the mark on anger. A better guide in the western canon is probably Seneca. He wrote an essay on anger that is worth reading. Seneca called anger “the most hideous and frenzied of all the emotions.” He, like some of the other ancient philosophers, described it as a brief insanity: “No plague has cost the human race more dear: you will see slaughter, poisoning, charge and sordid-counter charges in the law courts, devastation of cities, the ruin of whole nations… huge tracts of territory glowing in flames that the enemy has kindled... cities of greatest renown, their very foundations scarcely discernible – anger has cast them down into deserts, mile after mile without inhabitant – anger has emptied them all.”[3] Seneca also points out, “[w]e must admit, however, that neither wild beasts nor any other creature except man is subject to anger: for, whilst anger is the foe of reason, it nevertheless does not arise in any place where reason cannot dwell.”[4]
Elizabeth: “So there is reason even in the angry man I see, or so I would hope.”
Audrey: “Well, in light of that destruction, I guess hanging up on someone, even if it did come from a place of anger, isn’t so bad. Instead, you were being reasonable by not allowing anger to consume you both.”
Jacob: “Anger has its place, in limited doses, at limited times. But probably not in our profession, which is intended to be a civil practice in logic and debate.”
Maureen: “I’m not sure expressing anger has much use in everyday life either. Best that we tame it, before we lose control of it.”
Marcus: “I agree with you all. I think Seneca said it best, as he likens the expression of anger as the shooting of an arrow. Once the arrow has been released there is no re-aiming to be done, it must run its course. And of course, that means it is beyond the reach of reason. So, there may be times where an arrow is or feels necessary, but regardless, we must deal with its consequences once shot.”
“If virtue proceeds us, every step will be safe.” — Seneca
“Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans
countless losses.”[5]
Although the rage of Peleus is shown through the battles of the Trojan War, it
is the gods submission to their base and shallow appetites
which make the Iliad a true reflection of man’s follies. No love is won
with anger, only destruction and mutual defeat. Because anger, like any other intense
emotion, ends in a quick downfall back into the less adrenaline-pumping norm.
It is a high, like sweet food and physical pleasures.
Thus, we come back to
the virtuous mean of anger as defined by Aristotle as “good temper.” So, we
should not allow ourselves to become slaves to our anger, but rather examine
our arising emotions with self-reflection and understanding. If Marcus would
have attempted to lull the angry lawyer with reason, as he no doubt attempted,
it would have brought more anger, stoking the fire, so to speak. That doesn’t
mean Marcus should return anger with anger. Sometimes, it is best to walk away
and understand some arguments require a cooling off period. And when that
doesn’t work, we have referees in our judges to impose order. All legal arguments need not be decided by
the crashing of the gavel, as many can be resolved by replacing discord and
anger with calm deliberate reasoning. Practicing this behavior in law, and in
life, nurtures the virtue of good temper.
“You will not be
punished for you anger, you will be punished by your anger.” — The Buddha
[1]Penelope
Green, “Anger Rooms are all the Rage. Timidly We Gave One a Whack.” The New York Times, August 9, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/style/anger-rooms-the-wrecking-club.html
[2] Aristotle,
Rhetoric, Book II, Part 2, quoting The Iliad, XVIII.
[3] L.
Annaeus Seneca, Of Anger, Book I, Part 2
[4] L.
Annaeus Seneca, Of Anger, Book I, Part 3
[5]
Homer, The Iliad, Book I
