Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 674800" data-attributes="member: 812">It's possible we are dealing with different definitions of the word "anger". It seems like you are defining anger as "that which makes me take action against Bad Stuff." Which is different from my definition, which is something along the lines of "that which prevents me from acting rationally." So maybe we're not quite talking about the same thing.But I want to point out that in the above snippet you said "85% of the time (anger is) the most successful." Below you wrote:Why do you think it is successful for you dealing with others when for other people dealing with you it would not be successful? Is it because you are different from most people -- such that for MOST people, getting angry at them is the best course, but for yourself it is not? Or have we switched definitions somewhere along the way, so that what you are referring to as anger in the first statement is not quite the same sort of thing as in the second? I am referring to the second definition, if that is the case.Warranted or not, does it do any good? Any more good than action not spawned from anger? Keeping in mind that I don't believe one has to be angry in order to be firm and courageous against Bad Stuff.To what end? What good does that rage do? Rage like that contributes to all sorts of vehicle accidents and tragic incidents. Far better, I believe, to simply not be angry at that person. Just to drive safely, and report unsafe drivers.Nothing, of course.What? What? Forget about who's right. Just worry about what is true or not. Your freedom of thought has NOTHING to do with the opinions you hold. NOBODY can EVER take it away from you. Can you offer a single example of this actually happening -- a situation in which you discover that what you thought was true was in fact false, and you therefore became a mindless slave? Or have you been correct in every opinion you've ever possessed in your entire life? Have you NEVER been wrong?I am wrong constantly. Being wrong is my default state. I assume every opinion I possess is wrong -- and therefore set out to prove it so every chance I get. Once I discover that it IS wrong, I've learned something.Do you think that I am someone's mindless slave? Have you ever met a mindless slave? Or a descendant of one? What?So maybe what you're saying is the reason people get angry when others disagree with them is because they're afraid they'll be forced to adhere to someone else's mental domination? Okay, they're afraid and their fear is making them angry. With this I can agree. Anger comes out of our own fears -- especially our fears of helplessness. I've said it all along.And yet your big point above, your long argument about how it's about defending one's freedom, only proves my point. Anger comes from fear.Well, I think you've gotten the idea across but I have trouble believing that ANYONE considers this question (on the origins of anger) to be a life-or-death sort of proposition. Do you seriously believe that if you agree with me you will die? That you'll just magically fall to the floor, clutching at your heart as it stops beating?And I object to the whole notion of "definition of right". I'm not interested in definitions of right. I'm interested in what is true. If you're not, that's okay with me, but then why are we discussing this?Wait a minute! WAIT A MINUTE! You're the one who said, "if you're right, then I lose all access to everything but your opinion forever.  I become nothing but your mindless slave for the rest of my life, and the lifetimes of all my decendants throughout time". Now you're saying, no problem, we can both be right. If we can both be right then what on earth are we arguing about? Okay, so we're both right. Anger is a signal to fight (I haven't been convinced on this one yet, but never mind) and anger comes from our own failings. Yay. We're done. Aren't we? Anger is none of those things. Those things are themselves. Anger is anger. Losing your temper. Pounding at the temples, driving you crazy. THAT'S anger. Will, desire and determination are what they are. This is why these words are different things.This is why I'm beginning to suspect we're caught in a semantics trap. You're using a different definition of the word anger than I am. Now, that's all fine as far as it goes. I don't really care how you define the word for your purposes, but there's no point in us arguing about what anger is if we don't agree on what, er, anger is.That made more sense when I started it. I hope you understand.So for me, just to be clear, when I talk about anger, I am talking about a loss of rationality to a greater or lesser degree due to, let us say, rage. I am not talking about a strongly-held conviction that Bad Stuff should not be allowed to exist.Perhaps we should be using the word "rage" instead of anger? I am indifferent to the terminology -- I'm only interested in the ideas themselves. So does that change your stance any?When you identify something as Bad Stuff and lack the courage to understand it or express compassion towards it, you are a Coward. When you lose your temper and lash out at someone because they have frightened you, you are a Coward. Confidence and will have NOTHING to do with anger. They MAY coexist to some degree, but neither relies on the other.But some guesses are better than other guesses. Some guesses provide better explanatory power than others. Some guesses prove more helpful than others. I can guess that my brain is made out of special space cheese. That is clearly a less true guess than some others might be.I can call those guesses "truth" if I want. And so they are, unless someone can prove to me that they are false. So far, on this issue, nobody has.Well, only your insistence that you would die if you agreed with me.I'm not fond of it myself. Suggest a better one and I'll use it.Man, this would be a lot easier if you'd write shorter sentences! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I have no regrets about my life. There is not one moment in my past where I wish I had done something else. To wish you had done something else is to wish that you were not yourself, for what are we if not the sum of all our experiences -- the good and the bad (they're all good, really, but that's a secret)? To wish that you had behaved differently in one moment is to wish that the memories that compose you were different -- to wish that you were not you, in effect.And I like me. I've gotten very attached to me. I don't want me to change. I don't want me to cease to exist in favour of some other, unknown me who made a smarter choice about that girl or this car. That guy? I don't even know him.Many people do get very angry when teased about physical qualities they can do nothing about. Unresolved issues, sounds like to me.Regrets often spawn anger. Feelings of inadequacy, of helplessness. These are the roots of anger. Learn to overcome them, learn compassion, and you can defeat it.I very rarely get angry these days. When I do, I consider it very carefully. Anger nowadays is like a gift to me. It tells me there's something wrong inside me, something I need to pay attention to and understand. Something that's holding me back. Your anger is the same thing.</blockquote>

Verification