Unfortunately, people tend to take a simplistic view of our emotional lives. Anger, rage, fear, sadness – you’ll see these things described as ‘negative’ emotions, or ‘dark’ ones by people who plead with you not to ‘give in’ to them.

Like, say, Phoenix Woman at FDL did Thursday, in a post called ‘Take a Deep Breath. Please‘.

A sample:

Just. Stop.

Look at your own actions, your own responses to actions. We may not be able to get others to behave, but we sure can keep from letting our responses feed the cycle.

Please. Step away from the rage. Take a walk. Stop feeding the hate by nursing your aggrieved feelings — you’re hurting yourself more than you’re hurting the original target of your rage. (I know, I’ve been there, I take blood pressure medication as a result.)

Please. For your sake. And all of ours.

The obvious mistake being made here, and by those who focus on rage as automatically negative, is that of assuming that rage is not only unjustified, but always unhelpful. The former is sometimes true, the latter is simply wrong. Not everyone who is angry, or full of rage, is wrong to be feel that way. Not every angry person is lacking in self-awareness.

It is correct to be angry, even filled with rage, when you look out at the world. Every day people commit unfathomable atrocities and casual cruelties, and every day, justice is denied and the indifferent universe goes on, neither caring nor noticing.

Rage is a proper response, and a great motivation, to change our lives for the better. In fact, the constant suppression of anger and rage, in the name of ‘cooperation’, of ‘compromise’, of ‘reaching across the aisle’ and ‘dialogue’ and being ‘reasonable’, is one of the crippling weaknesses of contemporary liberalism. We’re often admonished to take half a loaf, to settle, to accept the scraps from the table, because, well, that’s The Way It Is.

No. It might even be true from time to time, but acknowledgement and acceptance are not the same thing.

So go ahead. Get angry. Feel rage. Feed it, hone it, stoke it. Keep it under control by all means, but by all means, use your rage. A person who can honestly look at our deranged existence without rage has cut out an essential piece of their humanity, and I pity them. People who advise others to cut this out voluntarily are sadder still, and peddling weakness while calling it strength. Don’t confuse the incoherent, self-destructive behavior of idiots or fools with a fundamental human drive that can be harnessed for progress. Don’t confuse limiting your potential with useful self-control.