Why Anger by Design?

Anger and other emotions are natural responses to the environment. Emotions are an important part of the mind, which is composed of an organism’s total reaction to the environment. Culture is an individual’s or group’s total interaction with the environment.

Design refers to the purposeful manipulation of our emotions by individuals and groups that desire to control our behavior; their motives can be selfish or sincere, or some of both. Our friends or close associates may reward feelings of loyalty and security, but at the cost of our desire to explore a wider world. We are often coerced into choosing one group over another, or are expected to embrace one belief system against all others. The price of belonging may be that we are expected to do harm or perpetuate group violence against people whom we don’t know.

Control of human beings by other humans is achieved by either condemning emotions categorically, or banning certain emotions and inflaming others. In the extreme case the individual is blamed for having emotions, which are an inescapable and natural condition of being human. Feelings and impulses labeled as negative are forbidden, and must be replaced by positive emotions. This harsh treatment of the natural individual supposedly leads to good behavior. Punishment is the most common means used to enforce compliance, even in civilized nations, whose members undergo chronic psychological and economic manipulation. Emotions do not go away. They simply can’t because they are biological in origin. The natural reactions of both anger and fear are intensified by repression of emotion and this heightened emotional state is played skillfully by powerful elements in society. Politicians, religious leaders, and wealthy entities have always viewed the mass of citizens as a resource to be manipulated in their quest for dominance within their elite hierarchy of power. This is as true of democratic societies as it is in military dictatorships or monarchies.