Anger Explained...
Why do you think aliens always circle around down here and then leave? Because people suck, that's why. They do. Save your "concerned" e-mails and stifle your, "thats not really Brian talking," diatribes. People do suck, and its a good thing that they do or we'd have no bar with which to measure awesomeness. People have to suck so that we have a good idea of what great is. It really is that simple. You have to see the awful things in this world to better appreciate the good stuff (also, if your not noticing the crappy junk then psychologists have a word for the kind of so-called healthy attitude you practice...it's avoidance, or maybe delusion, I'm not sure which one they'd be more quick to use).
Anger and disdain get a bad rap. There's nothing wrong with positive, constructive anger...nothing wrong with having a little fire in your belly, without anger and disdain that valuable fire can be unceremoniously extinguished without so much as a clumsy whimper. Trust me when I tell you that you don't want that.
You see, anger can be good...like when Bill Hicks said, "I smoke. If this bothers anyone, I suggest you look around at the world in which we live and shut your #$%&ing mouth."
It can be bad too...like when Reggie Miller goated John Starks into that stupid headbutt during Game #3 of the 1993 NBA Playoffs.
Good anger and the proper disdain that accompanies it is something to be proud of. It's keeps the world in working order. Bad anger requires legal counsel. I try my best to embrace the former, but on occasion I've been known to require the assistance of a barrister.
Good anger never gets the credit it deserves, while bad anger is omniscient and too often unnoticed. It is in mosques and churches and synagogues and just about every book ever written that purports to be holy. It's on right-wing talk radio and left-wing blogs. Good anger is Bill Hicks and Richard Pryor. Good anger is a gentle blend of realism, sincerity, and #$%& you. Good anger is hard to find. I practice it with a devoutness more typically associated with college football rivalries. So while most of the world is working hard to ease their anger, perhaps even dissolve it, I'm working hard to preserve mine. I certainly don't want to be free from it's grasp. I'd like to think that those drive-by aliens are onto something, something that eludes us earthly turds, and I would like to align myself with them. At least when it all comes to a fiery end I'll be on board the mother ship trading barbs with three headed extra-terrestrials, laughing at all the pitiful, suffering son-of-a-bitches left below to burn in the inferno of their own ignorance...and a really big friggin' laser blasting continents from afar.
Anger and disdain are good, if channeled properly. People do suck, and this world is a horrible place and I'm allowed to call people on it. I'm allowed to acknowledge it...to bust balls, to offend, to make enemies, to burn bridges, to call 'em as I see 'em. I'm allowed to be a prick, and for maybe the first time in my life I'm happy to admit it. Deal with it. My job is demanding, my life is stressful, my perspective is shaped often by the ugliest parts of this human experience we so regularly like to sugar coat with naivety and niceties. Sometimes I get angry. Sometimes my world view is terribly disdainful, but then sometimes it's exactly as it's supposed to be, because people suck...they do, and it's okay to say it.
There really wasn't much point to this whole splintering of thoughts and ideas, in fact, it's really just something of a disclaimer for future bad behaviour, one that I've selfishly tossed out into the great universe in hopes that it sticks to something. It might explain a lot, but that's only if anyone is paying attention. It might, at the very least, someday explain to Zoey why her Dad was wont to tear into giant, all-consuming rants about the thoughtlessness of people who don't use their signal lights or how people who don't say hello back deserve lashes. If she reads this she might come to understand that anger can be a good thing, if directed in positive angles. Of course, it can also make someone look like a jerk. On most occasions I'll risk it. Look around you. We're all allowed to lose our minds from time to time. I think Bill Hicks said it best, "...we live in a world where John Lennon was murdered, yet Barry Manilow continues to put out @#$&ing albums. God-dammit! If you're gonna kill somebody, have some @#$%&ing taste. I'll drive you to Kenny Rogers' house." Now there's a guy I'd like to bring with me when those aliens come to collect the reasonable people.
Anger and disdain get a bad rap. There's nothing wrong with positive, constructive anger...nothing wrong with having a little fire in your belly, without anger and disdain that valuable fire can be unceremoniously extinguished without so much as a clumsy whimper. Trust me when I tell you that you don't want that.
You see, anger can be good...like when Bill Hicks said, "I smoke. If this bothers anyone, I suggest you look around at the world in which we live and shut your #$%&ing mouth."
It can be bad too...like when Reggie Miller goated John Starks into that stupid headbutt during Game #3 of the 1993 NBA Playoffs.
Good anger and the proper disdain that accompanies it is something to be proud of. It's keeps the world in working order. Bad anger requires legal counsel. I try my best to embrace the former, but on occasion I've been known to require the assistance of a barrister.
Good anger never gets the credit it deserves, while bad anger is omniscient and too often unnoticed. It is in mosques and churches and synagogues and just about every book ever written that purports to be holy. It's on right-wing talk radio and left-wing blogs. Good anger is Bill Hicks and Richard Pryor. Good anger is a gentle blend of realism, sincerity, and #$%& you. Good anger is hard to find. I practice it with a devoutness more typically associated with college football rivalries. So while most of the world is working hard to ease their anger, perhaps even dissolve it, I'm working hard to preserve mine. I certainly don't want to be free from it's grasp. I'd like to think that those drive-by aliens are onto something, something that eludes us earthly turds, and I would like to align myself with them. At least when it all comes to a fiery end I'll be on board the mother ship trading barbs with three headed extra-terrestrials, laughing at all the pitiful, suffering son-of-a-bitches left below to burn in the inferno of their own ignorance...and a really big friggin' laser blasting continents from afar.
Anger and disdain are good, if channeled properly. People do suck, and this world is a horrible place and I'm allowed to call people on it. I'm allowed to acknowledge it...to bust balls, to offend, to make enemies, to burn bridges, to call 'em as I see 'em. I'm allowed to be a prick, and for maybe the first time in my life I'm happy to admit it. Deal with it. My job is demanding, my life is stressful, my perspective is shaped often by the ugliest parts of this human experience we so regularly like to sugar coat with naivety and niceties. Sometimes I get angry. Sometimes my world view is terribly disdainful, but then sometimes it's exactly as it's supposed to be, because people suck...they do, and it's okay to say it.
There really wasn't much point to this whole splintering of thoughts and ideas, in fact, it's really just something of a disclaimer for future bad behaviour, one that I've selfishly tossed out into the great universe in hopes that it sticks to something. It might explain a lot, but that's only if anyone is paying attention. It might, at the very least, someday explain to Zoey why her Dad was wont to tear into giant, all-consuming rants about the thoughtlessness of people who don't use their signal lights or how people who don't say hello back deserve lashes. If she reads this she might come to understand that anger can be a good thing, if directed in positive angles. Of course, it can also make someone look like a jerk. On most occasions I'll risk it. Look around you. We're all allowed to lose our minds from time to time. I think Bill Hicks said it best, "...we live in a world where John Lennon was murdered, yet Barry Manilow continues to put out @#$&ing albums. God-dammit! If you're gonna kill somebody, have some @#$%&ing taste. I'll drive you to Kenny Rogers' house." Now there's a guy I'd like to bring with me when those aliens come to collect the reasonable people.
posted by Unknown at
12:46 AM
1 Comments:
I love this post...it sums up a lot about how I have been feeling at work lately. The same people doing all the work and the same people sitting on their ass all day. Frustrating to no end. Then there are the kids who have no sense of intrinsic motivation so I have to offer chocolate just to get them to do their homework. My principal sees taking a kid off the Wonderland trip because they haven't done their work as a double consequence....because obviously the failing grade is a consequence, and yet it isn't because they are all going to Grade 9 next year even if they sat on their thumb for the entire year!!!! GRRRRRRRR
As for good anger, I like to think of it as passion. I am a very passionate person about the things I care about, and the people I care about and I think it comes across as anger a lot of the time.
I hear you, friend.
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