We can reduce each and every emotion to their simplest forms–pleasure and pain. The more positive emotions (happiness, excitement, satisfaction, etc.) being encompassed and characterized by pleasure, and the more negative emotions (anger, sadness, disappointment, etc.) being encompassed and characterized by pain. It is through this simplification that anger can be seen as an expression of pain. Having now established these parameters, I may pose the questions: what does it mean to be angry? Why is there so much anger and hatred in the world?
As I’ve explained in a previous post, hatred is not the opposite of love but a distortion and corruption of it. Hatred is oftentimes fueled by anger, much like love is fueled by (or leads to) happiness. Anger, then, is similarly not the opposite of happiness but a corruption. This corruption, however, is not a corruption of happiness, but of happiness’ true opposite–sadness.
To be happy is to be filled with positive emotion (pleasure). Conversely, to be sad is to be overrun with negative emotion (pain). Sadness is not simply encompassed by grief, however, as sadness may just be the lack of happiness. This does not point to an ambivalent state as some may think. The absence of happiness being sadness can exemplified in the metaphor hot and cold. While an ambivalent state of heat would be the intermediate between hot and cold (warm), there would still be some heat there. If happiness is heat and sadness is cold, and cold is the mere absence of heat, then it would follow that sadness is the complete absence of happiness.
“Anger is pain pretending to be powerful”
This brings us back to my earlier question–why is there so much anger and hatred in the world? The simple answer is pain. It is because of pain that people vent their unresolved emotions through anger. This pain may be caused by fear of uncertainty, what they do not know, or what they do not understand, but it is not processed in a positive way. Rather than fully allowing one’s self to express one’s pain, one lashes out in anger towards a scapegoat. This anger externalized could even be caused by one’s frustration in one’s self–not knowing how to reach inner harmony and thus focusing this energy outwards.
As anger fuels hatred, we may argue that hatred is anger externalized and focused on a singular group or object. Because of the pain present in the world, anger exists. Because of anger, hatred exists. If people were to process their pain in a healthy and cathartic manner then perhaps people may live in some form of harmony. How one may uncover this process is an individual’s journey–I do not have the answer there. I, like many, am prone to anger from time to time. All of this said, we mustn’t invalidate our feelings of pain, but rather manage them in a constructive way. Accepting that anger is caused by pain may be the first step in this process.
The Verbose Vomiteer 