Confrontation, Business, and "why So Potent?"

Now that I have accustomed myself to keeping my emotions in the conscious part of my mind, I feel it is time to bring this vision to others. There are so many people that I witness losing control, it is time to try to make a difference. I am going to begin confronting people to try to help them realize what I have. People need to learn self-control. There is a difference between being enthusiastic and competitive compared to constantly getting angry and putting yourself down. That is a tough spot to put yourself in, and often takes valuable time to pick yourself back up.

Additionally, as a probable future businessman, this control is extremely valuable. From a production standpoint, people with clear minds and strong wills are going to generate ideas and be on task much more than those with a short fuse who get easily rattled. I hope to one day be seen as a great leader by those around and below me (in solely a job-position sense), and this will be made possible by my self control and ability to teach and be taught by those around me. Bosses who work well with their employees will make for a much more positive working environment, and the employees will be more inclined to listen and do what they are told.

This erratic kind of behavior that I see so often makes me wonder why anger is such a potent emotion. It seems like people succumb to anger when they have nothing else to turn to. If they do not know how to handle a situation correctly, they often simply get mad as a coping mechanism, blaming others for anything that went wrong or possibly becoming dangerous to those around them. Additionally, life can just simply be frustrating. It is full of adversity and obstacles, and if you do not have a strong will, then anger can easily start to control your life if you give up after initial failure. On that topic, failure is one of the hardest things to cope with. It is so easy to give up hope after failure and just simply be negative about the whole experience. Much more difficult, but much more constructive, is to instead take failures as an opportunity to learn and adjust so that next time will bring about success.

Volleyball Resolve

Tonight, my volleyball team just got embarrassed by our cross-town rivals, Highland Park. There are some major issues within the mentality of much of the team that is hard to deal with. This is exactly where this issue comes in. It has taken all of my mental toughness not to just get angry that I am not playing more and it is becoming increasingly difficult to stay positive through these tough times that our team is currently experiencing. However, I have managed to keep my mental state as a constant thought in the back of my mind. I realize that I am the sole reason for my being down, and I am the only person who can change that. It starts at practice tomorrow. I got nothing to lose, and everything to gain. I can only increase my playing time, and still have a ton of room to grow back from where I was before my three-week vacation and my week-and-a-half absence due to a sprained ankle.

My Question and Me

Anger is a part of everybody’s life. Emotions are difficult to control, and anger seems to be just another simple emotion. This emotion, however, is usually negative. It can often lead to destruction, whether mentally, physically, or emotionally. It seems like most people in the world simply accept anger as an inevitability, and therefore do nothing to quell it when it comes. They believe anger comes from the subconscious, and do not have the will power to attempt to change. On the other hand, I have seen many sides of anger, and I realize that anger can rarely, if ever, coexist with happiness. I have also come to understand that anger is moldable and controllable. It can be shaped from something destructive into something constructive. I believe that anger is never a necessary emotion. It is always replaceable. So, this main problem that we face is not about the inability to control anger. Rather, it is about the unawareness that our anger can be controlled.

One way that I think people can work to avoid unnecessary bursts of anger is to simply know yourself. If you understand the way that you think, if you can figure out the framework and inner workings of your brain, then you will be able to allow your emotions to surface, and essentially become part of your conscious thinking. I understand the things that make me angry, so I am able to recognize when I get into potentially harmful situations and avoid any anger before it even starts. Also helpful is to know those around you as best as possible. If you are around the same people often, it is extremely advantageous to understand how they tick, and what u could do that might make them angry. This is especially true in marriage. I have seen many couples that might love each other dearly, but still have yet to understand how each other’s minds work after even twenty years of marriage. I have seen one spouse say something to another spouse that even I could tell would anger them, even though I only have known them a fraction of the time that they have known each other. Essentially, it is important not only to know somebody, but to try to understand them as best as possible as well.

In fact, I often feel sorry for people that I know that have a hot temper. Without these negative emotions, everybody could live much happier and more fulfilling lives. The more people get angry, the less they try to control it, and succumb to their anger more and more often. If people were taught from the beginning, however, that anger is a conscious, controllable emotion, the world would be a much more enjoyable place to live. Emotions always seem to radiate out from a source. When you show a negative emotion, it spreads to others around you, and eventually everybody’s negativity is keeping the group frozen in a downward state. Likewise, if you are constantly happy or positive, the people around you will feel that as well. Emotions can change drastically in an instant, which is why it is important to be able to control yourself as best as possible, since the control you have on yourself doubles as the control you have over those around you as just described.

What I have been doing in the past year or so can only be described as somewhat of self-therapy. I have been attempting to learn from my life experiences. After everything that I feel, or any significant event in my life, I have reflected on what I did right and wrong, and how I could have handled the situation differently. This was not in the “coulda-woulda-shoulda” sense of dwelling on the past, but rather, I used it more as a means to learn for the future. For me, this is especially true in volleyball. Whether a practice or a game, I am always stopping and adjusting to improve my game. This comes in the good and the bad. During the writing of this essay, my volleyball team got embarrassed by our cross-town rivals, Highland Park. There are some major issues within the mentality of much of the team that is hard to deal with. This is exactly where this issue comes in. It has taken all of my mental toughness not to just get angry that I am not playing more and it is becoming increasingly difficult to stay positive through these tough times that our team is currently experiencing. However, I have managed to keep my mental state as a constant thought in the back of my mind. I realize that I am the sole reason for my being down, and I am the only person who can change that. It starts at practice tomorrow. I got nothing to lose, and everything to gain. I can only increase my playing time, and still have a ton of room to grow back from where I was before my three-week vacation and my week-and-a-half absence due to a sprained ankle.

Outline Thus Far

Philosophy Essay Section 1

I) Section 1: My Question and Me

A) Question is nothing new for me

1) Thinking about this for years

(a) Not about inability to control anger

(i) About unawareness that anger can be controlled, crafted into a more constructive emotion

(b) People must work hard to know themselves, those around them

(i) This will work to avoid unnecessary confrontations

2) Around Anger all the time

(a) Friends, family, etc.

(i) Feel sorry for people who don’t realize they can control their anger/emotions

· Could be much happier

3) Wonder why people have to be angry all the time

(a) Never necessary

(b) Always alternative emotions

(i) These would be more constructive

4) Attempting to rid negative anger from my life

(a) Making a conscious effort to stay positive/happy

(i) Somewhat like self-therapy

(b) Want to start confronting others to teach them control

(i) Difference between enthusiasm/competitiveness and getting angry at yourself

II) Section 2: My Question and Literature

A) Compare/Contrast the two stories

1) Man’s Search for Meaning

(a) Shows why not to be angry from the passive side

2) Things Fall Apart

(a) Shows why not to be angry from the aggressive side

B) Man’s Search for Meaning

1) Needed to think positively in order to survive

2) Anger would get them nowhere

(a) Would only cause misery

3) Needed to keep reminding themselves that they could survive, though they still needed to accept the fact that they would never escape

(a) Suicide was futile, pointless

C) Things Fall Apart

1) Anger only leads to bad things

(a) Beats His wife during the week of peace

(i) Causes irreparable damage to his reputation

(b) Tribesmen burn church to the ground because they are angry about the unmasking of an egwugwu

(i) Causes the leaders of the tribe to be thrown in jail

(c) Okwonkwo attacks the messenger, and kills him

(i) Leads to his realization that resistance is futile

(ii) Ends up hanging himself

III) Section 3: My Question and a Philosopher or 2

A) Marcus Aurelius

1) Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

(a) Thoughts and Reflections

(b) Embraced stoicism

(i) Source of Guidance and self-improvement

(c) Wiki: He claims that the only way a man can be harmed by others is to allow his reaction to overpower him. Rationality and clear-mindedness allow one to live in harmony with the logos. This allows one to rise above faulty perceptions of "good" and "bad."

IV) Section 4: A Dialogue

V) Section 5: A Summation

Stoic Quotes

Epictetus:
"Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them."
"If, therefore, any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone."
"No man is free who is not master of himself."

Marcus Aurelius
"If you are distressed by any external thing, it is not this thing which disturbs you, but your own judgment about it. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgment now."
"It is in our power to refrain from any opinion about things and not to be disturbed in our souls; for things in themselves have no natural power to force our judgments."
"Everywhere and at all times it is in your power to accept reverently your present condition, to behave justly to those about you, and to exert your skill to control your thoughts, that nothing shall steal into them without being well examined."

Seneca
"The soul should know whither it is going and whence it came, what is good for it and what is evil, what it seeks and what it avoids, and what is that Reason which distinguishes between the desirable and the undesirable, and thereby tames the madness of our desires and calms the violence of our fears."

Philosophy Research Question

Main question:

Why do we get angry?

Sub-questions:

Why is anger such a potent emotion?

Why is anger a part of our emotional psyche?

Why does anger seem to be the one emotion that is abused or overused, when it is the most destructive?

Is anger subconscious? Can I bring it to my conscious thought process?

I am considering using these Philosophers / Texts:

Aristotle

Seneca

Epictetus

Marcus Aurelius – Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Here is a short paragraph about why I am considering working with this question:

Anger is much too prevalent in my life. Many of the people closest to me get angry at completely unnecessary things, and I never understand the purpose of such a terrible emotion in these harmless situations. Sometimes, it seems like people prefer to be angry than be happy. Therefore, I have resolved, long before this paper was assigned to me, to try to be as conscious as possible about my anger, and figure out ways to quell my anger or convert it to a more positive, constructive emotion. I constantly spend my time wondering about anger, and the purpose of such destructive emotions.

Links to Philosophy Encyclopedias

Noesis: Philosophical Research On-line

http://noesis.evansville.edu/

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://www.iep.utm.edu/

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/

Guide to philosophy on the internet

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/philinks.htm#topics

EpistemeLinks – Links for philosophy on the internet

http://www.epistemelinks.com/