A Movement Rooted in Anger Will Not Bring Happiness

A stance of anger—or a movement rooted in it—will not bring about happiness for you or the world.

The higher-order motivation that moves anyone is happiness.

If there is anger it is because a perceived barrier to happiness and well-being has been presented.

The question is one of efficacy.

Not only do movements rooted in anger tend to flame out, but they often have a result opposite to what was desired. 

Anger is a rapid, hot-burning fuel that tends to blind people rather than a cooler methodical means. 

And, it burns the host out which is why activists get burned out.

The ego may get temporary satisfaction, but you do not get sustainable change. In fact, as with all force, you get counterforce.

A wiser approach is to not fight ignorance with ignorance.

For example, wars are started out of ignorance, so it is more effective to do the deeper work of dismantling the industrial complex of war.

Wrath—quick, fierce action without hostility, like a mother lifting a car off a child—is good.

But a stance of anger creates stagnation and bitterness on all fronts in people. It punishes the hosts, not the intended recipient.

I’d prefer a world of women flourishing rather

than another generation of women bitter and filled with hate. 

For that to happen we will have to lead with a higher order emotion—like the desire to bring benefit to the world—with the built-in understanding that in order to do so, we must get out of suffering and the causes of suffering.

That’s a long term strategic fuel that is clean-burning, like using solar energy rather than fossil fuel.

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