Anger and the Politics of Distraction

Anger is such a big word that can mean so many things. I recently listened to a podcast that said that we can quickly feel anger and frustration because they are so much easier than feeling things like patience and gratitude, or sitting in the face of suffering. It was a podcast talking about what we do with the grief we feel over the state of the world.

We have a lot of grief these days and it's so easy to move to anger as a reaction to it. It's quite easy to get really frustrated with people who are acting and saying things that are so far from the beliefs that you might have about how things should be. Let's talk about those feelings and whether this moral outrage might be well justified. But let's also talk about how this anger reaction might be being purposefully generated to manipulate us and why that might be. And let's talk about what a different approach might look like.

This discussion also goes a long way to helping us out with what to do if we really disagree with what someone is saying during a meetup of Hungry Minds. What a great bonus!!

I've been listening to Pema Chödrön's 3-hour evening workshop talk published under the title Don't Bite the Hook and it has a lot to say on this. Please ask me for a copy of this - I highly recommend it. Ask by commenting here or in the message option in meetup.

Here's a couple of write ups that reflect what she says in written form: https://www.lionsroar.com/pema-chodron-what-to-do-when-the-going-gets-rough/ and Pema Chodron on How Peace Begins With Individuals- Not With Nations

If anyone is curious, here's a link to the podcast I mentioned above, although it's not directly related: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/reality-roundtable-17

Please post your own resources to share in the comment section.