In Praise of Anger!
by Lindsay Perigo
[Editor's Note: This is an excerpt, slightly modified for present purposes, from my presentation to SOLOC 2-Auckland & TOC-Vancouver, The Elixir of Youth. At this point I was discussing the seductive "sirens" who inhabit the swamp of modernity, among whose song-titles are Go With The Flow & Perception Is Reality. And the following.]
The connection between conviction & passion is obvious enough to us SOLOists —we who stand for rational exuberance—as is the connection between lack of conviction & lack of passion. Here’s a swamp song that works on the cause via the effect. Intense passion is the effect of profound conviction. This song says that intense passion is improper, unseemly, bad form, or, in modern parlance, "uncool." "Hot" is "uncool." "Cool"—neither hot nor cold—is "cool." By implication, the best way to avoid the embarrassment of intense passion is to eschew its cause—profound conviction. So if you find yourself starting to believe in something, abandon it quickly, before you make a fool of yourself!
Take anger, for instance. We all recognise that idealists are prone to anger when their ideals are affronted, because their ideals are affronted. We used to have the expression, "angry young men" specifically to denote idealists. Theses days, it is very "uncool" indeed to get angry, just as it is to hold the strong convictions that might lead to anger. Indeed, even on the SOLO Forum I detect the mentality that says the single most important thing in life is never to get angry & most certainly never to show it. To display anger is the greatest sin. Never mind the reason for your anger—just don’t get angry. To which I say, bollocks! Show me the man without anger & I’ll show you a man without conviction. Show me the man without anger & I’ll show you a jellyfish.
Now I’m not here advocating that one should run amok with one’s anger, or any other emotion. I have spoken many times of the line between passion & hysteria—a line I would also admit to having crossed a few times. I’m saying—try by all means to keep your mind in charge of it, but in response to that voice from the swamp that says, "Stay cool" or "hang loose" or whatever, be proud of your anger when there’s good reason for it. When there’s good reason for it, not to feel & show anger would be reason to be ashamed! Ditto any other emotion. Do not be afraid to fuel your emotions with profound convictions; do not be afraid to convey your convictions with intense emotion.
Listen to these magnificent words from the 19th century anti-slavery campaigner, Frederick Douglass:
Those who profess to favour freedom, & deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without ploughing up the ground. They want rain without thunder & lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
Ponder this: a review of the SOLOHQ web site on Free-Market.net Homepage of the Week, Oct 31, 2002—an exultant discovery of Objectivists who had abandoned the Mr Spock view of how their philosophy should be practised:
Ordinarily I wouldn't wade through the literature of an Objectivist organization. That's not because I think Rand was wrong, it's just that I find most Objectivist literature to be a bit, well, dry. But the SOLO website drew me in and kept me there. ... they proudly proclaim that reason and passion are not contradictory but complementary. If only we can get that point across to all the deadpan Randroids out there. Even as I fundamentally agree with Objectivism, I never got excited about the philosophy. Thankfully, Sense of Life Objectivists provides excellent insight into the philosophy without the tedium that hamstrings other Objectivist organizations. A passionate amen to that!
Ponder this, from Facets of Ayn Rand, by Mary Ann & Charles Sures:
Charles: I’d like to add two points here. One is that her expressions of anger were the exception, not the rule. Two, they were often followed by applause from the audience – because the listeners were inspired by hearing someone speaking up for & defending what was right & good. They had heard, over & over again, mealy-mouthed speakers afraid to take a position – or suggesting that there were always two sides to a question – or that nothing is black & white. To have been subjected to these attitudes from childhood on up, & then to hear Ayn Rand take a firm position & defend it with conviction – this was cause for cheering. The audience response was not only to the content of her ideas, but to the manner of expressing them. She was medicine for the soul.
Mary Ann: All those adults who taught us never to get angry, or if we did, not to express it, to hide our emotions when we were offended or felt we were being treated unjustly, to remain calm, to maintain an even keel, for God’s sake don’t blow up, no matter what – these people didn’t do us any favours by urging us to suppress, to live like glazed, non-reacting creatures.
Charles: When she got angry, it was precisely because she was a thinker & an evaluator who was certain of her convictions. She judged something as right or wrong, good or evil - & she responded accordingly. She didn’t simmer & stew; she came to an immediate boil. Her thinking was not hampered & slowed down by chronic doubt, & her emotions were not suppressed or muted by it either. Moreover, her emotions never distorted or clouded her thinking. And the anger didn’t last. It was over almost as soon as it began.
Mary Ann: I miss knowing that there is someone in the world who always speaks out, unequivocally, against irrationality & injustice, & who not only denounces evil but defends the good. She was mankind’s intellectual guardian, a soldier in the battle of ideas. Her banner was always flying high. When she died, someone made the following comment: now anger has gone out of the world. And I thought, it’s true. And it’s the world’s loss. And mine.
Ponder all of the above, I say, &, when next incandescent at the unspeakable deeds of terrorist maggots, at the spewings of their apologists & appeasers, at the amplified jungle cacophony of musical terrorists such as rap "artists," at the sneering nihilism of the latest postmodern "painting," etc., qua Objectivist & qua decent human being, salute yourself for feeling that way - & for the thinking that led you to.
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