Anger—The New Western Ideal

In many ways, the West has abandoned early twentieth-century modernism, which urged that if humanity gathers enough facts and thinks about them hard enough we can come to master the entire universe. It was replaced by postmodernism, which suggested that there may be no such thing as truth, only different points of view (its own point of view, of course, being excepted, since postmodernism alone is intrinsically correct). Because people have different points of view, each is entitled to hold and express her or his narrative in an open marketplace of ideas. Today we are spiraling toward cancellationism, in which if you don’t see things my way, I will hate, berate, and unfriend you. I refuse to listen fairly to any way of thinking except my own, and will actively squelch narratives I dislike (not to mention the people who present them). But you had better listen to and adopt my narrative! I am proud of my refusal to hear other voices, and consider my hatred and shouting down of others to be among my finest virtues. 

Some of my Facebook friends tend to preemptively dismiss anything Christian. So I asked them, “How might Buddhism evaluate anger?” Here is a sample:

“What prevents us from experiencing true happiness are greed, hatred, and delusion. They are the three poisons that corrode our mental and physical health and destroy our happiness. Of these three, hatred is the worst. Hatred can range from mild irritability to uncontrollable rage. So-called righteous anger or moral indignation is, in fact, another form of hatred. When anger possesses a person, he or she looks ugly and lies in pain. People in anger kill themselves, yet how their life-destroying acts bring death unto themselves they cannot discern. That is the ruin anger breeds.” [abridged]

The Bible, of course, also laments anger: “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” “Don't worry about evil people who prosper, or fret about their wicked schemes. Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper—it only leads to harm. For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in Yahweh will possess the land.”