Anger, Hatred, Powerless, and Connection - Term Paper Example

In this paper, I address the conflict between the view that anger is different from hatred and that anger and hatred are one and the same thing. In the following, I assume that there is temporal hatred that comes when one acts emotionally out of anger, which may not be distinguished from hatred that may cause a conscious anger and is remarkably different from anger itself. If Buber were to personalize the two terms and fit them into his dual system, he would group the temporal hatred and anger in I-Thou set where the entities consist of, specific isolated qualities, but engages in the same realm of unconsciousness.

The permanent-conscious hatred and anger would be classified as I-It where they are different and exist independently. Anger can lead to temporal hatred or permanent hatred. This relationship can be clearly explained by the following scenario. Mike is mired on the highway by a traffic jam. He is supposed to attend a staff meeting, but the traffic is moving at a snail’s pace. While on the traffic jam, another car keeps intercepting and flouting traffic rules. At some point, the car attempt to fix itself ahead of Mike and it slightly collides with his car.

At this point, Mike rushes out with a metal bar, with eyes dilating, red and his heart thumping, and smashes the windscreen of the offending car. At this particular point, Mike is angry! Mike was angered, and he developed a temporal hatred for the offending driver and the driver’s action. Suppose on arrival, Mike find that his former manager, whom he hated for being un-understanding is chairing the meeting, and he decides to punish Mike by suspending him. On trying to explain his case, the chair interrupts and claims that Mike has always been late and that his actions are deliberate.

Mike is angry again, and this time round he may not take action. Thich Nhat Hanh warns that, in our daily lives, we must practice mindfulness so as to identify anger, analyze the effect of anger that comes from within us than that, which comes from without. This is because the primary cause of anger is the anger within us or the hatred within us, like the case of Mike and his manager. Thich quotes the Buddha who asked “How can anger arise in one who has no anger?” Anger, being an emotional state of soul, could not arise if we had no seeds of anger in our store of consciousness because events and words act as catalysts of what is already within us.

This is the reason as to why, two people can experience the same event or hear the same words, but one gets damn angry and the other one not. Therefore, in Mike’s scenario, one person can be said to have self awareness of his state of emotion unlike the other. Since anger can lead to either noble actions or disgraceful ones, it means that we have discretion to choose what to do. Gould quotes Hanna and Brown (2004) lengthily regarding this self awareness thus; Self-awareness entails individuals’ ability to label their emotions, whether pleasant or unpleasant, and to accept them as part of being human.

Self-esteem involves an acceptance of emotions as pertinent information about the self and an ability to act responsibly on those feelings. When individuals are not able to tolerate their fears or anxieties, they develop controlling, or addictive behavior intended to numb unpleasant emotional states. (p. 81-82) Thich analyzes that one should master his or her own anger, so as to help others manage theirs. This self mastery emanates