Anger has received a pretty bad rap in our society. The best example that I can think of is the Emperor from Star Wars: “Give into your hate Luke … let your anger give you strength … something something dark side …complete.” When you think of evil characters, fictional or not, there is hardly anyone else that is so purely evil (without sadistic tendencies or getting into the realm of crazy-evil). Anger was what fed him power and turned even the best and hottest of Jedi to the dark side (he got the whiney ones too). In a more practical sense, anger also seems to be the motivation behind a lot of violence in our society, whether domestic, racial or, not to bring up a sensitive topic, but also hate crimes are generally motivated by anger.

So what value does anger have, if not to drive people to hurt one another? What gets accomplished when anger drives our passions to do horrible things? Is not anger a motivating factor behind evil acts  perpetrated by humanity against humanity? That’s the worst of it: we can be angry at that stupid ledge for being just at the right height so it skinned our shin, but there are rare things we can be more vehemently angry with than people. We can be so angry at each other that it drives us to do impulsive, brash and hurtful things we would not do otherwise because we let anger overcome us.

I want to say anger is wrong.  If anger has lead to so many bad consequences, why have it at all?  Wouldn’t this world be a better place if we just threw anger away?

So do it. Do it, I dare you!  Try to throw away your anger completely. Try to deny yourself the feeling of anger at all times.  When someone wrongly accuses you of betraying your friends, don’t be angry. When you see a parent hit his or her child in public, try to not be angry. When someone writes fag and nigger and KKK on your car windows, don’t be angry.

You see, we cannot. We cannot deny ourselves anger. I feel repulsed, upset and yes, angry when I face these kinds of situations in my life. Is that so wrong?  Is it so wrong to feel angry when bad things, wrong things happen?

I just feel like experiencing anger is one of the many facets of being alive. What makes anger something that is so inherently wrong that it shouldn’t be one of all of our other emotions?  Imagine if we could go without jealousy or apathy or hate?

A good distinction should be made here: hating something is not the same as being angry at something. I can be angry at something I love, but I can only hate myself for loving something.  I think we’ve all been angry at a parent, but it is something entirely different to hate them.

So when I ask for the value of anger, I’m not examining acts of hatred.  Perhaps Hitler was angry with the Jews, but no one can doubt that he hated them too.  As for the Emperor, I don’t know that he hated anything except those rebel scum, and when you see things from his side, I think we can understand why.

The bad that comes from anger are the actions caused when anger takes over. When we experience anger, we have a choice. Yes, it feels sometimes like our passions run away with us, and they do, but is it at fault of anger? Genuinely, I think we can say perhaps.  On the one hand, we know anger has motivated many to do bad things, but on the other hand we all can know it and recognize its potential to do so.

What social movement hasn’t been sparked by a group of people who were angered by something? In the same breath, I should also say some of the most influential movements have been led by those who transcended anger’s rapturous grasp. William Shenstone, a Scottish writer, said, “Anger is a great force. If you can control it, anger can be transmuted into a power that can move the world.”

Many great minds hold that one cannot control his or her anger completely, and to try is vain and destructive. Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius said, “How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”

Hardly have I answered my own questions: I leave that to you. I leave you with one last word from poet Maya Angelou: “Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns all clean.”