Anger is a tool of liberation. Anger is a powerful motivator. You have to care to be angry – and I want you to care.
Listen, we live in a blame-y society.
Sorry, did I say blame-y? I meant “individualist”. Same difference.
We live in a society that encourages the powerful to exploit the powerless, and then blames the powerless for not escaping their own exploitation. I’m not going to give you examples – this entire website is a list of examples.
In vs Out
I tend to believe there are two major paths you can go down when you’re getting hit with that much blame. Your first option is to internalize it. When you internalize, you let their shitty voices into your head. Society tells you you’re too fat? Better starve yourself so you can fit into whatever pants size will make your coworker or doctor or partner respect you. But it never ends there. I don’t know about you, but I always end up hearing their cruel voice in my head louder than my own. And then, one day without really noticing, I identify with it. That external voice of cruelty and intolerance became my own. The bigots and the haters won so thoroughly that I don’t even remember that there was a battle. “I feel like shit, but that’s just the way that these things go,” I tell myself. “In fact, I deserve it because I didn’t do [insert ridiculous demand here].”
The much better choice, IMO, is to EXTERNALIZE it. Call that shit out. Name it and yell at it. My goal is to teach you to divest yourself from the blame and nonsense that has been placed upon you so that you can find your authentic self underneath. Someone tells you to be less flamboyant in public? Instead of spending the day wondering if you might be too much, tell them what they can do with their shitty opinions. Some asshole wants to tell you to smile more? You’re allowed to be angry about that. You’re allowed to be angry about all of it.
So many delightful flavors!
There are many kinds of anger, too. I want to plant a flag right now and reclaim boiling rage, simmering resentment, icy frustration, and all the other delectable varieties (tell me your favorite in the comments!). Anger can come out as calmly but firmly setting boundaries. Anger can come out as protests and demonstrations. Anger can come out as an anonymous blog with Prince Zuko, lord of justified anger, on your cover page. Nobody is saying this has to be destructive or all-consuming unless that’s what serves YOU best. And guess what – only YOU get to decide that.
Anger Is the great uniter
Fun fact, people can’t know what you need unless you tell them. They can guess, maybe, but don’t bank on that. I know for me, personally, it really helps when someone just says the thing out loud. Someone tells me to call the Mayor because some proposed law would hurt them? You better believe that corrupt asshole is getting a voicemail from me. And you see what just happened there? My friend’s anger just made a change in the world. Their anger called me and hopefully many others to their aid – probably many more than would have showed up if they had internalized whatever garbage message the garbage mayor was trying to push. When you point out something shitty, you’ll be surprised who joins you.
So get out there and get angry! And then come here and write about it. Let’s topple the system, one angry blog post at a time