Ethics (5 comments)
Periodically, either sparked by an event in my life or just a result of boredom, I spend some time trying to understand myself. Every time I do it, I come to the conclusion that my own self-imposed morals are almost exactly those which christianity tries to instill in its followers. I suppose that's one of my dislikes with religion: it teaches things that to me are obvious and requires people to follow the teachings with threats and promises of their eternal consequences. "That shouldn't be needed," says ck the idealist.
This latest bout of introspection has left me with what I think to be a particularly interesting idea. Anger is voluntary. I've known this for a long time, but not thought about it. When I was a child, I quickly learned that anger almost always served as a detriment, so I've learned not to let anger exist in my thinking. In my mind, at least, anger is the result of the way I interpret my other emotions. if something bad happens, and I try to handle all the emotion at once, that's anger. But when I can have the presence of mind to deconstruct what I'm feeling, it's easy to deal with. I long observed this behavior and thought that I was just quelling my rage... that it would come back later hurt me, but now I think that the anger never existed. And that's a calming thought.