Anger is Not a Dirty Word

It’s just been weaponised by those who want to shut it down

Anger has become a dirty word. We are made to feel guilty or wrong if we experience it. The word is weaponised, the emotion shut down. But anger is a normal, healthy, and even adaptive human emotion. If you find yourself experiencing anger, and someone is trying to shut it down, ask yourself: WHO is trying to shut down your anger? Is it yourself? Perhaps you are ashamed. Is it a parent, a partner, a boss? Is it your government? Or just someone who doesn’t want to be confronted with the inconvenient truth of this natural human emotion that deserves validation? Why are there people trying to shut down this perfectly valid and empowering emotion?

Let’s use a topical example: The current protests and riots occurring in the US and other cities across the world. People are angry. In the US, Donald Trump is threatening military force and violence in his effort to shut this shit down. WHY is he unwilling to validate this justified emotion? What would be the consequences of validating the anger of the protesters he is vehemently attempting to silence?

The answer: POWER. And the fear of losing it.

Trump, the rest of the US government, and governments around the world are fully aware that to validate this legitimate human emotion would be to acknowledge and admit that shit has gone down to create this anger. In the case of the US, it is not just about the murder of one unarmed black man. It is all the unarmed black men who have been murdered at the hands of cops who are supposed to be trained to protect and serve. It is the death or mistreatment of anyone who has been a victim of any corrupt system that has not served them the way it was designed to. It is injustice at any level and in any form. It is anger at the constant abuse and gaslighting to which people are collectively “waking up”. These people are TRIGGERED (also not a dirty word, but a legitimate psychological term used to describe a catalyst for beneficial change). This is the only option these protesters feel they have left to break through the bullshit.

Consider the concept of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is a type of anxiety disorder that manifests as a result of experiencing a traumatic event or situation. Complex PTSD results from a series of events or one prolonged trauma, compounding the associated stress and anxiety, without adequate time or space to process and heal. The symptoms include feelings of shame and guilt, dissociation, relationship difficulties, hyperarousal, loss of meaningful systems, and difficulty controlling emotions.

What we are currently seeing around the world is what happens to people experiencing Complex PTSD when they just keep experiencing trauma. Especially when that trauma is in the form of political abuse. What happens is that this trauma erupts. Ignites. Explodes. The fire within the psyche can no longer be contained. It is unleashed, like wildfire tearing across the globe. A cleansing of the global psyche.

I don’t mean that it is ok to literally set things on fire. I don’t condone this behaviour. I don’t want to see death and destruction as the only solution to healing from death and destruction. I do not advocate for violence. Notably, the majority of protesting has been peaceful, with the violence predominantly committed by the law enforcement sent in to shut it down. What you do with your anger counts, so make it constructive and conducive to global and planetary healing.

But I do believe that what we are seeing is a physical manifestation of the fire that is raging within the collective psyche. A rage that can no longer be contained. Should no longer be contained. A rage that MUST be validated. This is not the same as inciting anger. It is acknowledging it’s valid existence and allowing space for it to heal.

Try this social experiment if you don’t believe me: Next time someone tells you they are angry, do your best to validate their emotions. Ask them why they are angry. Tell them you can “hear” them, even though you may not share the same feelings. Tell them it’s ok for them to feel that way and remind them that they won’t always feel angry. But that it’s ok for them to sit in that space for as long as they need to. Then watch the anger begin to dissipate. This kind of validation has a healing and extinguishing effect on the burning rage of anger.

What are these protesters saying when they riot in the streets, set fire to cities? They are saying: ENOUGH! We have had ENOUGH! You did not listen when we protested peacefully. You did not listen when we said, “#BlackLivesMatter”, following the murder of Trayvon Martin. You did not listen when we took the knee. You did not listen when we used our public platforms to raise awareness. You did not listen when we said, “I Can’t Breathe” following the murder of Eric Garner. You did not listen when we held our arms in the air and said, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” following the murder of Michael Brown. Like George Floyd and Eric Garner before him, they are screaming: WE CAN’T BREATHE! And now this is the only way we can get your attention.

“A riot is the language of the unheard”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

I would go so far as to say that anyone who is not feeling some degree of anger right now is either part of the problem, or is not tuned into the collective global psyche. The anger is not just being felt by the protesters actively demonstrating against racial discrimination. It is being felt by anyone who is currently waking up. It is being felt by those being forced out of Covid-19 lockdown before they feel safe, by those who are sick and tired of governments who will not take climate change seriously and contribute to the declaration of a global climate emergency. It is being felt by anyone who is waking up to the fact that the world is completely fucked, and we have a very small window within which to unfuck ourselves.

Here’s a quick pop quiz to find out where you stand: Do you want things to return to “normal”? If you answered yes, then you are part of the problem. If you can’t wait to get back to your fast-paced, jet-setting, consumer-driven, keeping up with The Jones’ lifestyle, back to the things that fulfil your indulgent and hedonistic desires, then you are part of the problem. If you are a climate change denier, or even down-player, then you are part of the problem. Inconvenient? I know, right?

Perhaps you are perpetuating the system because you have fallen victim to the gaslighting. There’s no shame in this. We have all been part of the system and we are all waking up at different rates. Sometimes it’s hard to have compassion for those who are slower to wake up. But please… for the love of God… WAKE UP. Or it will be a very rude awakening.

The rich and powerful don’t want us to remember how Mother Nature started to heal while we were locked down. They don’t want us to have sufficient time to sit and appreciate the natural wonders that were suddenly visible as the pollution dissipated, time to start thinking clearly as the fog of corruption started to lift. They want us to feel afraid, as they push us back out into the workforce, as “brave warriors” fighting to “save” the economy. Just like they don’t want us to remember how many unarmed black men have been murdered at the hands of police. They would rather commit unwarranted, violent acts of domestic terrorism, while violating basic human and constitutional rights, in order to undertake cheap political stunts, than validate our anger. And this is all just part of their big, fat, political gaslighting. Our anger is yet another inconvenient truth.

Think about it: Who is more likely to kill you – an unarmed black man walking down a city street, or a greedy white President sitting in his ivory tower, telling you to hate each other, and pushing you back to work during a global pandemic, while refusing to give you affordable healthcare? The point is, just like a virus, humanity doesn’t discriminate.

We should all be angry. How else do we begin to navigate these global EMERGENCIES that are continually downplayed and perpetuated by those in power who want to continue shitting all over our basic human rights? It doesn’t mean we stay stuck in this state. It means we use it constructively for mobilisation, then we move through it, clear it, heal it, and create solutions. You can be part of the problem, or part of the solution. Making that choice is simple. What comes after it is hard.

To be sure, I am not a perfect messenger. I’m not a spiritual guru. There are some who think my messages incite anger. That’s why I’m attempting to clarify that validating legitimate human emotions is vastly different to inciting them. Thankfully, my messages are guided, in part, by “enlightened” trolls who hold me accountable. If we wish to hold others accountable, we must hold ourselves up to the same degree of scrutiny. So, I thank my enlightened trolls. Of course, there will always be troglodytes who interpret political activism as “hate speech” and appeals for racial equality and justice as “racism”.

I am a privileged white female in my early forties, and I have had ENOUGH of the systemic abuse inflicted upon humanity and the entire planet, predominantly (but not solely) by privileged old white guys in positions of misused power. This doesn’t make me racist. It doesn’t make me hateful. But it does make me angry. If you don’t like what I’m saying, here’s a revelation for you: I DON’T CARE. I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to make change. If I ruffle a few feathers along the way, so be it. If you DO like what I’m saying, GREAT! Let’s be friends and maybe we can create change and find solutions together.

We have the power.