why-is-everyone-on-the-internet-so-angry

[hadespussercats]

The philosopher Sartre once opined that anger is the attempt to achieve that which is not achievable by ordinary means through magical means, that anger is an attempt to forge a path where none truly exists, by sheer dint of will. Now the flip side of this is that we, as emotional animals, react to anger in similarly magical ways, creating paths without the need to do so; the aggressor in coming off her center, pushes the receiver off theirs, and in cases, sometimes, a path does indeed open up. Much of what makes the emotional brain tick, I suspect lies hidden, additionally covered over by myths and stories created to give the myth maker a lever to use against the force. Are these myths true? Some, perhaps, in that they coincidentally align with facets of the behavior of the emotional brain. More than that, I suspect they are as true, or perhaps better phrased, as false, as any other myth. Psychology has a long way to go to have an integrated model of the emotional brain, and febrile explanations constructed out of the erector set of folk psychology are sure to be a mixture of success and failure. Cultural memes and all that shit, ya know.

Anyway, I always bring out the Sartre chestnut on occasions such as this. I don't know, I guess doing so makes me feel comfitted, and somehow more in control.

You got a little extra from me tonight; the turtle peaks out from beneath the shell. Next time, don't put so many quarters in.



Oh, one other thing that occurs to me is that it may be serviceable to approach it from Buddhist psychology. All suffering, stems from craving, the desire for something that you have not. This craving should be viewed as the kernel from which anger grows, ultimately. And, as an aside, I believe the Buddha said that suffering and harm is like ripples on a pond, it doesn't stop where the conflict began, but ripples outward, causing more harm. And where that fits in here, I don't know. I think my mojo went to the kitchen for a snack.

I love that you used the term "comfitted." I'd thought that it was another one of those words, like "sheveled," that doesn't really exist on its own. But I'm glad it does, or that you've decided to make it so.

Sorry for the derail.

[tattuchu]

I knew folks that were researching behaviours and road rage. They were working on the hypothesis that each thing that impedes a motorist going from A to B, traffic lights, bad drivers, road works etc builds up stress. They in turn become less conscientious and themselves are more likely to make mistakes and piss people off which further escalates the stress and it can keep building and building.

Sounds like a passage from Good Omens