Rage
Sept.11 + Dead Ash Trees = our Unbalanced Brains
“Rage — whether in reaction to social injustice, or to our leaders’ insanity, or to those who threaten or harm us — is a powerful energy that, with diligent practice, can be transformed into fierce compassion.” ― Bonnie Myotai Treace
Today is September 11, that fateful day when the twin towers were struck. That is one reason I am writing about Rage today, but the more important reason is the picture above of all the dead ash trees which I walk by every morning. All that unnecessary death fills me with Rage: its this kind of Rage I’d like to explore today. Now “normal” Rage is like the Anger and hatred driving people to fly the planes into the Twin Towers on Sept.11. Anger and Hate are powerful emotions that are usually directed in horrible and destructive ways that divide rather than unite people, emotions that stomp on empathy and consider empathy a sign of weakness. Likewise, the horrible assassination of Charlie Kirk, the young American Conservative “Influencer” Sept.10 is causing great division and anger in the USA as the “us” vs “them” mentality spreads like a plague:
Charlie Kirk killing deepens America’s violent spiral [1]
But this is normal, everyday way destructive side of Rage is not my interest today. Rage like this is so obviously destructive that all not infected by it despise it and see as a dangerous cancer for our social body as it destroys trust and belonging and rationality. Thus many of us see emotions like anger and rage as only destructive emotions that are a sign of illness; of emotional instability or emotional immaturity. What if, like all of life, these emotions have two sides? What if Rage can INCREASE empathy rather then decrease it? What if, to use the Star Wars metaphor, there exists both a dark AND a light side to “the force”? In The reason I ask this is based upon this image above – a pile of dead Ash trees sitting across the road from me in a farmers field & the dead ash trees in the forest nearby– a place I walk every day.
What struck me today, Sept.11, that day of “Infamy” is that while we react to perceived injustices that are very, very personal, injustices that strike at our identity, injustices that are immediate, we do nothing about far graver, more far reaching injustices. For example, we have had no reaction to the death of millions of Ash trees here in Eastern Ontario. There was no reaction to the deaths of innocent school children in yet another mass shooting in Colorado that happened on the same day that the Conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was killed. In other words, I wonder why the next quote is true:
“I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.”
― Charles Bukowski, Ham on Rye
It seems to me that we are, as a culture, emotionally stunted. We have not trained our emotions to be used as a source of great energy but directed by our minds. Or could it be that because we see ourselves as separate from each other and separate from the Natural world around we don’t feel and thus don’t care about the suffering of others – whether they be human or nonhuman- because they are not “me”? Perhaps this atomistic world view where we deny that we are an integral part of the social fabric and just a thread in the fabric of life is why we only react with Rage when it personal? Perhaps that’s why Rage and Anger are usually only reactive, destructive emotions instead of pro-active, positive emotions that heal instead of destroy?
I would like you to consider this possibility: what if Rage, l ike all emotions, if directed properly, can energy can bring more justice and peace to our fractured world? As some would say, there are no bad emotions – there are only bad guidance systems. Think of it in terms of evolutionary theory – all that makes us evolved to give us some evolutionary advantage to keep us alive. Thus anger and rage can keep us alive: if well directed. Today we are going to tread in the minefield that some call “Righteous Anger”, a dangerous but also potentially fruitful emotion that can help us stir from lethargy into action. Rage can be a constructive emotion IF, and only IF, it is directed to do good; that means it brings people together to face a challenge and does not divide them and does create “us” vs “them” – as it increase empathy. Let’s see if we can escape this trap and instead use powerful emotions like Rage to heal and unite us.
Clearly this is the default way Rage acts within us: we seek somebody to demonize, we become violent, we think less, we lose empathy. I just don’t think this is the ONLY way Rage can behave. There is a long tradition in many Religions of what is called Righteous Anger. A good example of this way of thought is from Thomas Aquinas, an Italian a medieval philosopher and theologian who synthesized Aristotelianism and Christianity:
“He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust.”
A modern version of the same thought comes from Martin Luther King Jr.:
“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict…[an individual] who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it”
The poet Khalil Gibran, in his book The Prophet, wrote this about Passion & Reason:
Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.
If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.
Finally, I leave you with who I consider the lastest and greatest incarnation of this perspective: Iain McGilchrist. In his books he repeats again and again how our CULTURE – and make note that this means many of the “normal” behaviours we observe are cultural instead of biological constructs – drives an inbalance between the left and right hemispheres and has put the so called “logical” brain in charge. The problem is that the right hemisphere is “smarter” – it sees the big picture and is not stuck on minutea and short term, reactive behaviours. You can read his books or just watch this video called “Beyond Paradox” [ref.2] to get a sense of what he means:
Iain McGilchrist, proposed that our culture has been captured by the left hemisphere, whose dogmatic, technical and irrational way of processing information leads it to manifestly dangerous conclusions about the way the world works. Importantly, the left hemisphere never changes its mind.
In one of the widest-ranging conversations on Planet: Critical to date, Iain explains how we came to lose sight of the bigger picture by forsaking the intuition, creativity and intelligence of the right hemisphere. We discuss how our relationship to language makes and unmakes the world, the search for meaning, human agency, relationality, morality, art and the divine, with Iain clearly spelling out a path to human fulfilment—which may very well be the only thing which can save Earth from the worst of us.
So what can you do about this mess called misdirected Rage? First, don’t allow negative emotions to overwhelm you and dominate you but simultaneously don’t pretend that you or issues are all logical and reasonable. Emotions matter, they give us energy and drive to do good, they unify us for a common goal, they bring laughter and joy as well as anger – and remember, even anger – if well guided, can overcome the lethargy and hopelessness that so many feel as they tell themselves these lies:
I don’t matter. Whatever I do won’t make a difference. The world is a mess and getting worse.
So, be filled with Rage. Rage against an attitude which allows invasive species to continue to annihilate entire ecosystems [the emerald ash borer came from China on a wooden pallet]. Rage against the murder of innocent children in gun violence. Rage against the spraying of glyphosate in our forests. Rage against the continued use of PFAs which are destroying our fertility and reducing our intelligence. Rage against anybody who demonizes the other as they create the lie of “us” vs “them”.
But don’t stay angry – use your empathy to find a way to heal. Use that empathy not to demonize the “other side” but to demonstrate by your words and deeds an alternative and better path forward that unites with not only with each other but all life. Don’t be against things – be for other ideas, other ways to being, other & more imaginative way of living. You can do it: be emotional and use that power to heal and eventually your Rage will calm, just as a storm calms after it has changed the world.
We misunderstand passion and reason, we act as if the latter were an independent entity and not rather a system of relations between various passions and desires; and as if every passion did not possess its quantum of reason.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
References
1. https://www.axios.com/2025/09/11/charlie-kirk-killing-trump-political-violence
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