Our blood boils over the traffic mess, uncollected garbage, air and noise pollution, high prices, unbridled graft and corruption in government, unsolved crimes, the plummeting economy, and the growing restlessness and violence in our society. We are furious at our powerlessness to stop the drift into uncertainty and moral chaos. Anger consumes energy very rapidly, and if long sustained, may completely drain the person feeling it. Perhaps this is the reason why there is very little creative work going on within and around us. We waste our energy working up all sorts of angst and anxiety over situations that are beyond our control, while neglecting or aggravating those that are within our power to alleviate.
Anger can turn even the most reasonable man into a fanatic.
Some newspapers and radio commentators are experts in turning a modicum of anger into full-blown fanaticism. It is hard to deal with fanatics because they are hopelessly one-sided. They are filled with an almost infallible certainty of their rectitude, and an equally infallible certainty of the iniquity of those who disagree with them. This often results in a morbid factionalism that divides our society. The recent election is an indication of this.