Anger

This is not a resolution although it’s really hard to present a ‘change’ idea at the beginning of January without the assumptions being made. It comes from a piece in the Guardian here saying we should ‘be less angry’ online. Citing ‘twitter mobs’ and the futility of keyboard bashing anger, the implication is — in a terribly patronising way — that we are doing anger wrong.

Thanks, author, but it’s made me think we aren’t doing enough anger. Anger when focussed and corralled is what changes things. Anger challenges authority and power in a way that acquiesence can’t. Maybe we should think less about the kind and shiny way and more about where anger can take us, together, in the new year.

You see, anger disrupts power. Anger challenges power. I’m not talking about trolling and being abusive to others, to me, that’s not where anger needs to be directed and that isn’t ‘anger’ in the way I perceive it, that’s abuse . We do need to challenge assumptions more. Online forums and social media allows more voices but while the author of the Guardian article sees this proliferation of ‘humourless’ twitter to be ‘A Bad Thing’, we have to understand that giving people a voice means the voices that are heard might not be the easy ones, they might not be the ones that agree with us. But they/we have positions worth listening to and worth saying.

If we have built power on assumptions, we need to expect those assumptions to be challenged and we need to do more of the challenging. I’d like to say that social media flattens hierarchies but it doesn’t. We need to be mindful that we don’t recreate hierarchies which are no less oppressive by selecting the voices that are heard and that are acceptable.

My intention then is to be more angry and listen to more angry voices. Anger is generated from oppression. It needs to be heard. Angry voices can join with other angry voices and point, like the little boy in the Emperor’s New Clothes at the ridiculousness of the so-called leaders chumming up with others in position to power that we see by backslapping behaviours and the lack of critical appraisal.

We need to be angry that the decisions made by politicians and the media do not challenge the structures within our society that leads to inequalities. We need to be angry that we, who have power, are frustrated by those with more. We need to be angry that those who have less power than us are not enabled to be heard in the organisations we work and the communities we inhabit. We need to be better at combining this anger and using it positively to effect the values that promote better working practices and fairer societies.

Being angry doesn’t mean I’ll shout more. We can be angry quietly as well as noisily. Not everyone has the wherewithal to shout or to be heard. We are more likely to be heard if we pool our voices and shout together.

Sometimes I worry that I don’t have the courage to be angry enough though. I have had angry moments over the last year. It hasn’t always ended well but it has led to some honest discussions which have been helpful and left me with a clearer path than I had before I spoke out. Anger isn’t always destructive. It can lead to a greater clarity of purpose and honesty about the direction that needs to be taken, especially if that direction has lost focus.

Anger can be constructive, indeed, a healthier society or organisation sees anger as useful. Anger is passion. Anger is seeing things that need to change and understanding how the lack of change leads to frustration and pain. Anger is being able to direct that passion into conversation.

So I want to focus on being more angry. Let’s not go for ‘boat rocking’ and ingratiating ourselves with those who have power in the attempt to pussy-foot around the real issues which need changes. Let’s be angry at those who try to pigeonhole us or tell us how to think. Let’s hold those captaining the boats to account and, if necessary, make them walk the plank. Sometimes we need more than rocking.

I think the world needs more anger, directed at power and assumptions. Maybe anger will spread power, encourage more and louder angry voices and will lead to more change than being well-behaved and passive.

Maybe it won’t have any effect and it’ll be shouting into the wind but through vocalising, it may be, at the very least, we find people to shout alongside us and the collective voice is more powerful than the single ones.