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Responding to a Year of Anger, Hatred, and Outrage

Responding to a Year of Anger, Hatred, and Outrage

Last updated on: December 30, 2017 at 5:53 pm by Gudjon Bergmann

Responding to a Year of Anger, Hatred, and Outrage 2017-12-30T17:53:58+00:00 Gudjon Bergmann

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Responding to a Year of Anger Hatred and Outrage

Anyone, who has followed any form of media this year, even if they only did it out of the corner of their eye, will agree that this has been a year of anger, hatred, and outrage.

Scabs have been ripped off some ugly wounds and their putrid essence has been exposed for all to see. Cultural divides have widened, and, with the aid of social media, people’s raw nerves have never been easier to strike or be stricken by.

Who knows, maybe this whole process will show itself to be an important part of an eventual healing process, but, so far, it hasn’t been pretty.

In this final column of 2017, I want to explore these forces of anger, hatred, and outrage, and suggest forms of spiritual weightlifting for 2018.

Responding to Anger

Anger is an interesting emotion. It can move a person to action or, if it becomes a sustained feeling, be a force of destruction from the inside out. Anger can’t be suppressed completely; even the most advanced spiritual masters admit to succumbing to the emotion from time to time. Therefore, anger is best utilized in a sprinting fashion by allowing short bursts to move one to action, followed by a period of recovery.

But what do we do if the outside world seems continually angry? How do we respond to sustained emotional attacks that would under normal circumstances be rare and evoke an appropriate amount of anger?

Under those conditions (which have been all too common this year) most people don’t fare very well. They either try to match the intensity of the anger they perceive as being pointed at them or try to numb themselves to the emotion with food, alcohol or drugs.

Responding to Hatred

Hatred is a different animal all together. It is a feeling of sustained animosity towards a person, idea or group of people.

I, for one, did not realize that there was so much hatred in the world prior to this year. I knew that people were angry, but the level of loathing and acrimony I have observed is beyond my comprehension. Seeing disfigured faces of hatred along with abhorrent language come from every corner of society this year has been eye opening.

Hate is much different to deal with than anger. If you engage with an angry person, you can usually talk them down and help them cool off. But the slow simmer of hate is more challenging. Even after a person cools down, the hate remains.

Responding to Outrage

If you mix anger, fear, and discontent with a dash of other emotions (appropriate to the moment), you get outrage.

This year, we, as a society, have experienced one wave of outrage after another. Even though most of them were in some way justified, outrage is not a sustainable emotion, which is something that the movers and shakers in our society have begun to rely on. They know that short bursts of outrage are easy to deal with, even when they are on a massive scale.

The reason is simple. Outrage is so enervating that it is bound to evaporate. It cannot be sustained for any length of time. And so, even when a person has every reason to be outraged, the feeling will dissipate because it causes exhaustion. I know that many people are greeting the New Year with less energy than they are used to because of the number of outrageous events this year has produced.

What Can We Do Better?

I have been asking myself that question all year.

My personal response to the unfortunate change in national rhetoric was to become an ordained Interfaith Minister, to be part of the solution. Late in 2017, I created lectures titled Working Together Towards Harmony that I will be giving for free in 2018. In addition, I have focused on my family, tried to be a positive influence in my society, and been a part of the interfaith community in Austin.

And yet… I still fall victim to anger and sometimes outrage.

The only sustainable solution I see is spiritual transmutation.

We need to transmute these emotions into something else, something better.

Anger is relatively easy to transmute. It can only destroy a person when it is not used. From a spiritual standpoint, we must morph anger into beneficial action, let e-motion stand for energy in motion.

Hatred, on the other hand, is far from easy to transform. The only force strong enough to melt it away is love. In the Dhammapada (Sayings of the Buddha) it says:

“For hatred can never put an end to hatred; love alone can. This is an unalterable law.”

Meeting hatred with love requires us to be on the path of goodness, to fill our reservoir with love, and increase our capacity for doing good. As Gandhi said:

“It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.”

Befriending those who regard themselves our enemies and meeting hatred with love are difficult indeed, but both are at the heart of spiritual transmutation.

Finally, if outrage is to be effective it must be tempered and converted into long-term action. Events that cause outrage usually require an enduring response, not a quick social media campaign filled with curse words.

Spiritual Weightlifting

None of this is easy. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. This is true about every spiritual path. Albert Schweitzer remarked on his relationship with Jesus thusly:

“The demands of Jesus are difficult because they require us to do something extraordinary. At the same time He asks us to regard these [acts of goodness] as something usual, ordinary.”

There is nothing easy about turning the other cheek, loving thy neighbor as thyself, or treating the least among us as if they were the savior himself, but that is what Jesus asks of those who follow his teachings.

My point is that all religions, all wisdom traditions, ask their adherents to do what is hard.

That is what is needed now. To do what is hard.

If you are willing to do what is hard and bring new energy into your life in the coming year, I suggest the following forms of spiritual weightlifting:

– Turn anger into action.
– Meet hate with love.
– Turn outrage into sustained effort.

While you work on that (progress over perfection), remember to take care of yourself, just as you would take care of your diet alongside physical weightlifting efforts. Become a reservoir of love, compassion, and understanding. Become the person you want to see other people become. Work for justice. Take baby steps and be kind to yourself along the way.

Aspirational Goals

This column is written for me as much as it is for anyone. In it, I have described my aspirations, not only for 2018, but for the foreseeable future. I ask you to join me on this path of spiritual weightlifting, of doing what is hard because it will make us stronger and allow us to work together towards a more harmonious society.

I wish you a Happy New Year!

Gudjon Bergmann
Author & Interfaith Minister

p.s. If you live in Central Texas, I hope to see you at one of my free events in January and February.

Pictures: Pixabay.com and Pexels.com CC0 License

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