Anger

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Between Us

  In recent studies, Michael Boiger, Alexander Kirchner-Häusler, Anna Schouten, Yukiko Uchida, and I studied emotional interactions in Belgian and Japanese couples who came to the lab to discuss a disagreement. The Belgian and Japanese couples danced to very different types of music: the dance of “meeting each partner’s personal needs” and the dance of “relationship harmony,” respectively. The Belgian couples reported and showed mutual anger (as rated by independent judges) throughout discussion of conflict—more than any other emotion we measured, and much more so than the Japanese couples. The Japanese couples reported more mutual empathy and showed more validation than any other emotion during the discussions on conflict, and also more than their Belgian counterparts. In focus groups, Belgian men and women told us that anger and conflict were “right” for the relationship, as they helped the couple to figure out and negotiate each partner’s needs. Japanese men and women in this study, told us they avoided “bad feelings” in the relationship as much as possible by evading discussion about a disagreement, by adjusting to their partner’s wishes, and by empathizing (putting themselves in the shoes of their partners). Of course, it happened that Belgian couples felt empathy and validated each other, and of course, Japanese couples were judged as angry occasionally, but the episode—the dance in which the couple joined—was different. When unpacking the emotional episodes, it is important to try to understand the dance that is being performed: the interpersonal goals. Expectations for the dance in monocultural couples, and monocultural interaction partners in general, are shared to a certain extent. But what if you are the person to make a next step in an intercultural encounter? Many of us are these days. I do not think there is a shortcut to unpacking the emotional episode. Unpacking becomes easier when you know the many ways in which emotional episodes may develop across cultures, as these cultural differences reveal the junctures at which emotions are OURS. Some cultural competence does make it easier to imagine how emotions are tied to the sociocultural contexts in which they occur—to be aware of “opportunities.” Knowing about cultural differences in the ways emotional episodes typically unfold in other cultures also stretches your imagination beyond your habitual way of doing emotions. And yet, understanding the emotions of people from other cultures will never be like botanizing tropical plants. There is no finite number of well delineated entities to be known.

• From The Erotic Mind (1995)

  Most of us think of anger as a dangerous, destructive emotion—which, of course, it most certainly can be—but its primary function is self-protection. Fear alerts you to danger, but anger helps you mobilize the energy necessary to take action. As Carol Tavris says in her fine book Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion, “anger is ultimately an emphatic message: Pay attention to me. I don’t like what you are doing. Restore my pride. You’re in my way. Danger. Give me justice.”14 Anger is self-protective, and because risks and dangers abound in the erotic adventure, we shouldn’t be surprised that sex and anger are intricately linked, with results ranging from positive to destructive. Obviously, those who are chronically angry, who feel as if life itself has done them wrong, are rarely available for sensitive lovemaking, although some are very interested in hostile sex. More than a few angry people lose interest in sex altogether or are plagued by sexual dysfunctions. Angry couples can go either way. Some conflict-ridden partners rely on clashes between them to add drama to their sex lives, while others sink into sexless bickering or outright war. Luckily, most of us are neither ruled nor defined by our anger. Instead we occasionally become angry, with varying degrees of comfort or distress. In examining your own peak turn-ons, don’t be surprised if you come across one or more in which anger functioned as an aphrodisiac. The role of anger as an arousal intensifier is crystal-clear when a fight or argument is followed by a passionate reconciliation, as in this story told by Sheila, a graduate student in her mid-thirties: I remember a night in our second year of marriage when my husband Rick and I had a terrible fight. At least I felt it was terrible. Rick says it was no big deal. It started out as a normal argument until Rick was really getting pissed off. I felt so frustrated that he wouldn’t listen to me and became very agitated myself. He can be so stubborn! He talks like a damn attorney, pounding away at me like I’m on the witness stand. Before long I became totally emotional with tears streaming down my face. Rick tried to hold me but I pushed him away. After I calmed down a little we were able to talk things out.

• From Mud Vein (2014)

  I’d told her I was writing a new book. One about Nick. She’d become flustered at that. Not in the extreme outward way a normal person becomes flustered. I don’t even know if I can pinpoint how I knew it upset her. Maybe her bracelets tinkled a little extra that day as she jotted notes down on her yellow pad. Or maybe her ruby lips pulled a little tighter. But I knew. I’d confessed to her that I’d messed everything up, but I wasn’t sure how. When we ended our session she’d grabbed my hand. “Senna,” she’d said, “do you want another chance at the truth?” “The truth?” I’d repeated, not sure of what she was getting at. “The truth that can set you free...” Her eyes had been two hot coals. I’d been close enough to smell her perfume; it smelled exotic like myrrh and burning wood. “Nothing can set me free, Saphira,” I’d said in turn. “That’s why I write.” I’d turned to leave. I was halfway out the door when she’d called my name. “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” I’d half smiled, and gone home and forgotten what she’d said. I’d written my book in the month after that meeting. I only needed thirty days to write a book. Thirty days in which I didn’t eat or sleep or do anything at all but clack away at my keyboard. And after the book was finished and catharsis was complete, I’d never made another appointment to see her. Her office called and left messages on my phone. She eventually called and left a message. But I was finished. “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” I say it out loud, the memory aching in my brain. Is that where she had the idea? To put me in this place where for a time both the sun and the moon were hidden? Where like slow, seeping molasses I would discover the crickets of truth in my heart? My zookeeper thought it kind to be my savior. And now what? I would starve and freeze here alone? What was the point of that? I hate her so. I want to tell her that her sick game didn’t work, that I’m just the same as I’ve always been: broken, bitter and self-destructive. Something comes to me then, a quote by Martin Luther King, Jr. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. “Fuck you, Saphira!” I call out. Then I reach out in defiance and grab the fence.

• From The Great Transformation (2006)

  It sprang from his outrage at the suffering of his people and his yearning for justice. He wanted the wicked to be punished for the pain they had inflicted on good, innocent people. But as time passed, he began to realize that he would not be alive to see the Last Days. Another would come after him, a superhuman being, “who is better than a good man.” 25 The Gathas call him the Saoshyant (“One Who Will Bring Benefit”). He, not Zoroaster, would lead Lord Mazda’s troops into the final battle. When—centuries later—the Axial Age began, philosophers, prophets, and mystics all tried to counter the cruelty and aggression of their time by promoting a spirituality based on nonviolence. But Zoroaster’s traumatized vision, with its imagery of burning, terror, and extermination, was vengeful. His career reminds us that political turbulence, atrocity, and suffering do not infallibly produce an Axial-style faith, but can inspire a militant piety that polarizes complex reality into oversimplified categories of good and evil. Zoroaster’s vision was deeply agonistic. We shall see that the agon (“contest”) was a common feature of ancient religion. In making a cosmic agon between good and evil central to his message, Zoroaster belonged to the old spiritual world. He had projected the violence of his time onto the divine and made it absolute. But in his passionately ethical vision, Zoroaster did look forward to the Axial Age. He tried to introduce some morality into the new warrior ethos. True heroes did not terrorize their fellow creatures but tried to counter aggression. The holy warrior was dedicated to peace; those who opted to fight for Lord Mazda were patient, disciplined, courageous, and swift to defend all good creatures from the assaults of the wicked. 26 Ashavans, the champions of order (asha), must imitate the Holy Immortals in their care for the environment. “Good Purpose,” for instance, who had appeared to Zoroaster on the riverbank, was the guardian of the cow, and ashavans must follow his example, not that of the raiders, who drove the cattle from their pastures, harnessed them to carts, killed, and ate them without the proper ritual. 27 “Good Dominion,” the personification of divine justice, was the protector of the stone Sky, so ashavans must use their stone weapons only to defend the poor and the weak. 28 When Zoroastrians protected vulnerable people, looked after their cattle tenderly, and purified their natural environment, they became one with the Immortals and joined their struggle against the Hostile Spirit.

• From The Erotic Mind (1995)

  **Voice — Sheila:** I remember a night in our second year of marriage when my husband Rick and I had a terrible fight. At least I felt it was terrible. Rick says it was no big deal. It started out as a normal argument until Rick was really getting pissed off. I felt so frustrated that he wouldn’t listen to me and became very agitated myself. He can be so stubborn! He talks like a damn attorney, pounding away at me like I’m on the witness stand. Before long I became totally emotional with tears streaming down my face. Rick tried to hold me but I pushed him away. After I calmed down a little we were able to talk things out. When we went to bed Rick wanted to have sex but I said “forget it” because I was still mad at him and didn’t feel sexy at all. But in the morning I felt different. I opened my eyes and there was Rick’s beautiful face, our noses almost touching. He gave me one of those big grins that made me fall in love with him and we embraced passionately. His penis felt wonderful as it pressed against my clit. What followed was surely one of our most amazing lovemaking sessions. I was totally excited. I couldn’t get enough of him. I remained in a steamy mood all day long and we had boisterous sex again that night. Maybe we should fight more often.

• From Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (1989)

  Because their moral sources are unavowable, t hey are m a inly invoked in p o lemic. Their p rincipal words of p ower are denunciatory. Much of what they live by has to be inferred from t he ra ge with which t heir enemies are attacked and refuted. Marxism i s an excellent case in point. This self-conc ealin g k in d of philo so phy i s also t her eby p arasiti c. In the case of the radical En light enm ent, doubly so. Fi rst, i t is para sitic on it s adver sari e s for the expre s sion of its ow n mo ral sourc e s , it s o wn words of p o wer, a nd henc e for its contin uing mo ral fo rce . Bu t s ec ond, si nce it und ermine s all previou s formul ations of th e cons titutive good which could gr oun d th e li f e goods it r ec ognizes , witho u t putti ng a ny in its place , it als o live s to s o m e degree on the s e e arl ier fo rmula t ions. We saw how utilit ar ianism cont inue s and bui lds on an existing tur n of argument , in, e.g., denouncing ce rt ai n philo sophies for t he pride wi t h which they elev a te certai n go als over ou r common and sens ual fulfilm ents. The i nvoc at ion of p ride made sense wi thi n the or igina l Ch ris tian context, i n contras t t o t he hum ili ty which is p ro per to those who ar e a ll eq ually c hildren of God . This is denie d, but no ne w cont e xt is provi d ed. Nietzsc he's ch alleng e br ough t out the un a vowed b or r ow in g from Chris tiani ty that un derp ins this nat uralist hum anism and a t the same time showed how v ulnerable this mak e s it. Classical utilitariani s m lives off moral insights which are widespread in t he c ultur e, but which it itself has given no justified place to a nd perhap s c an n ot gi ve a pl ace to. And this is the second facet of its parasitism. It no t o nl y ne eds enem ies to generate its words of power; sometimes it draws its m o r al ide als, if not directly from its enemies, at least from a moral culture w h i ch the y have bet ter articulated. The utilitarian E n l i gh tenmen t is in this way shot through with contradic t io n.

• From The Great Transformation (2006)

  The eighth century was a period of religious transition in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, and at this time we see the first stirrings of the Axial spirituality that would come to fruition there some two hundred years later. Where the Vedic Indians had achieved fresh insight by meditating on the sacrificial rituals, the people of Israel and Judah analyzed the current events of the Middle East, and found that the unfolding history of their region challenged many of their notions of the divine. Some were also beginning to be critical of ritual and wanted a more ethically based religion. During the eighth century, the art of literacy spread through the western Semitic world and the eastern Mediterranean. Hitherto writing had been used chiefly for practical, administrative purposes, but now scribes began to develop a royal archive to preserve the ancient stories and customs. Toward the end of the century, the earliest part of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, was probably committed to writing. But more important, we find the seeds of the self-abandonment that would be crucial to all the religious traditions of the Axial Age. Here too the catalyst of change was the eruption of violence in the region. During the first half of the eighth century, the northern kingdom of Israel was riding high. Assyria was growing from strength to strength, and would soon dominate the entire region, and as Assyria’s loyal vassal, Israel enjoyed an economic boom under King Jeroboam II (786–746). The kingdom was prosperous, exporting olive oil to Egypt and Assyria, and there was a marked rise in population. Jeroboam conquered new territory in Transjordan, and undertook major building works in Megiddo, Hazor, and Gezer. The kingdom now had a sophisticated bureaucracy and a professional army.1 In Samaria, the nobility lived in luxurious houses with delicately carved ivory panels. But as in any agrarian state, wealth was confined to the upper classes, and the gulf between rich and poor became distressingly obvious. In the rural districts, the peasants, whose labor funded the cultural and political projects of the king, were heavily taxed and subject to forced labor. In the towns, artisans fared little better.2 This systemic injustice was a religious as well as an economic problem. In the Middle East, a king who abused his obligations to the needy violated the decrees of the gods and called his legitimacy into question, so it was not surprising that prophets rose up in the name of Yahweh to attack the government. Amos and Hosea were the first literary Hebrew prophets. Their disciples transmitted their teachings orally, and at the end of the eighth century, wrote them down and compiled anthologies of prophetic oracles. The final texts included the words of later prophets too, so it is difficult to be certain about the authenticity of individual oracles, but it is clear that both Amos and Hosea were disturbed by the social crisis of their time.

• From The Erotic Mind (1995)

  Most people do not get excited doing with real people the cruelties they most want but only imagine. That may be the difference between those who are perverse and those who are not: the perverse, when really doing what they think about, can still remain excited.4 I would add, however, that acting out a seemingly humiliating or degrading scenario with a real person can be a consensual act of shared imagination, fundamentally different from hurting another through manipulation or coercion. The key distinction is that you are pretending. DANGER IN THE ANTIPORNOGRAPHY MOVEMENTBecause women are disproportionately harmed by sexual assaults, it is completely understandable that they demand action against them. But I respectfully suggest that antiporn feminists are following a course that will ultimately make the situation worse rather than better. If a brilliant misogynist were to devise a plan to increase the sexual mistreatment of women, he surely would begin with a propaganda campaign to convince everyone that fantasy and behavior are interchangeable. If it worked, we would gradually come to believe, as many already do, that demeaning, disgusting, or brutal images are the same as destructive acts. Unfortunately, this is the same dangerous message the antipornography movement is unwittingly propagating. Those who target fantasy representations for suppression are subtly blurring the boundaries between fantasy and behavior. Lack of clarity about the difference between fantasy and action is responsible for more destructive sexual acts than all the violent pornography in the world—of which there is relatively little, especially compared to the unrelenting depictions of violence in the mainstream media committed by and against sexy people. In my limited experience working with sex offenders, I’ve consistently seen their difficulties distinguishing thoughts from acts, a curious phenomenon also noted by professionals who specialize in his area. In addition, some offenders appear to have stunted imaginative abilities; they can only act out what millions of others explore within the safe confines of fantasy. In spite of my opposition to suppressing porn, I disagree with those who claim that pornography is totally benign. I’ve seen how porn sometimes contributes to very real problems. For example, adolescent males who base their sexuality primarily on porn usually find themselves tragically ill-equipped for real relationships. In addition, dozens of men have consulted me for help with sexual dysfunctions that were at least partly traceable to the unrealistic exaggerations of porn. We also know that some men prone to commit sex crimes stoke themselves up with porn. As they “space out,” they detach themselves from reality and reduce what may already be a limited capacity to perceive their victims as more than objects in a fantasy.

• From The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures (2018)

  In such a climate, the spreading of false news and post-truths is made easier. The dystopian world that George Orwell once described with the Soviet Union in mind has returned to fit a different sociopolitical situation. Speed of communication and the resulting acceleration of the pace of life are also possible contributors to a decline in civility, detectable in the impatience of public discourse and in the increased rudeness of urban life. 4 A separate but important issue that continues to be unappreciated is the addictive nature of electronic media, from simple e-mail communications to social networks. The addiction diverts time and attention from the immediate experience of surroundings to a mediated experience via all sorts of electronic devices. The addiction enhances the misfit between the volume of information and the time required to process it. The breakdown in privacy that accompanies the universal use of the web and of social media guarantees the monitoring of every human move and expressed idea. Moreover, all sorts of surveillance ranging from the necessary for public security to the intrusive and downright abusive are now a reality, practiced by governments and by the private sector, with guaranteed impunity. Surveillance makes espionage, even the espionage of superpowers, a well-established activity that has been with us for millennia, sound honorable and childish. Surveillance is even for sale for high profit from a variety of tech companies. Unfettered access to private information is being used to generate embarrassing scandals, even if the subject matter may not be of a criminal nature. The result is the cowering of political candidates into silence lest they and their political campaigns be destroyed by personal revelations. This has now become another important factor in public governance. In large sectors of the most technically advanced regions of the world, scandals large and small have influenced electoral results and enhanced the public’s growing mistrust of political establishments and professional elites. Societies already facing major problems of inequality of wealth and human dislocations due to unemployment and wars have become nearly ungovernable. Disoriented electorates refer to long gone and mythically better pasts with either nostalgia or angry revolt. But the nostalgia is misplaced, and the anger is often misdirected. They reflect a limited understanding of the plethora of facts served by varied media and designed primarily to entertain, promote particular social, political, and commercial interests, and reap huge financial rewards in the process. There is a growing tension between the power of a large public that appears better informed than ever but does not have the time or the tools to judge and interpret the information and the power of the companies and governments that control the information and know everything there is to be known about that same public. How the resulting conflict can be resolved is not clear.

• From Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble (2014)

  The old tech industry was run by engineers and MBAs; the new tech industry is populated by young, amoral hustlers, the kind of young guys (and they are almost all guys) who watched The Social Network and its depiction of Mark Zuckerberg as a lying, thieving, backstabbing prick—and left the theater wanting to be just like that guy. Many are fresh out of college, or haven’t even bothered to graduate. Their companies look and feel a lot like frat houses. Twitter, at one point, will literally hold a frat-themed party. In 2012 a new word has entered the Silicon Valley lexicon: brogrammer , which refers to a kind of macho dickhead who chugs from a beer bong and harasses women. Soon come the scandals and lawsuits and criminal cases, with tales of sleazy founders sexually harassing female employees or, in one extreme case, allegedly beating up a girlfriend. These are the people who now run tech companies, who have been entrusted with huge sums of other people’s money. It would be nice to think that when everything falls apart, the only ones who get hurt will be venture capitalists on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park. But a lot of the money being thrown at these kids originally came from pension funds. The pain, when it comes, will not be confined to Sand Hill Road. Walking around San Francisco, it strikes me that this cannot end well, that the combination of magical thinking, easy money, greedy investors, and amoral founders represents a recipe for disaster. My first response is to feel the same kind of righteous indignation that I felt back in the late 1990s. (Journalists are really good at righteous indignation. It comes naturally to us.) But this time I also feel something else—maybe because I’m older and more pragmatic, or maybe because I now have kids to support, or maybe because I’m still stung by the loss of my Newsweek job and fearful that there is no future in the media business. Maybe it’s because I hate my new boss at ReadWrite, and every day I slog into the office and bang out blog posts only to have her call me from New York and tell me the site isn’t getting enough traffic. I feel like a hamster in a wheel, running and running, getting nowhere. I’m never going to make any money doing this, and meanwhile all around me there are kids in skinny jeans making millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars—money for nothing, as Mark Knopfler sang in that old Dire Straits song. This time I start thinking that I should get in on that. I should go get a job at one of these start-ups. Tech companies and VC firms are all poaching journalists to pump out blogs and get them some attention. They’re flush with cash and hiring like crazy. Two of my journalist friends have already made the leap. One is working at Evernote, the other at Flipboard.

• From Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (1989)

  If the y are orthodox utilitarians, and if my argu m ents in Part I are valid, they will have an untenable meta-ethic to start with . In a dditio n, as I have just indicated, there is plenty of evidence that in their lives they are not i m perviou s to such g oods as e xpressive unity and inte grity. Romantic ism has shaped just about everyone's views about personal fulfil ment in our civilization. The apologists of instrumentalis m suppress their awareness of this when it comes to esp o using their explicit ideology. They sim p lify their moral world by deliberately narrowing their sympathy. Or so I would wish to argue. Mo re ov er, the instru mentalist re ading of th e publi c conseque nc es is bad ly off tar get. The re is an importa nt se t of c ondi tions of the cont inu ing hea lth of self-governing societie s, well explored by T ocqueville. These include a strong se nse of ident ificat ion of the citize ns with their pu blic ins ti tu tion s and politi c al w ay of life, and may also in v o lve so m e dec ent ralizat ion of power w he n the central ins titut ions ar e too distant and b ur eauc ra tized to sustain a con tinui n g sense of parti cipa tion b y the m selv e s. The se condi tions are unde r th r eat in our highly c oncen trate d an d mobi le soc ie ti e s, whi c h ar e so d omin at ed by i nstru men t alist con sidera tions in bo th economi c and defence pol ic ie s. What is wor se, the atomist o u tloo k which in stru m ent al ism foste rs ma kes pe ople unaw ar e of these condit ions , so th a t they ha pp ily support p oli cies whi c h und er mine the m -as in th e recent rash of neo- conse rvative me a sures in Britain an d the United St ates , wh ic h cut welfare pr ogra mm e s and regr essive ly red ist ribu t e in c ome , thus er oding the ba ses of co mmuni ty ide ntifica tion. Atomism has so befogged our awareness o f the conne ction between the act and consequence in society that the same people who by their mo bile and gr ow t h-o riented way of life have greatly increased the t asks o f the 506 • C O NCLUSION public se c tor are the loudest to protest paying their share of t he cost s o f fulfilling them.

• From Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (1989)

  Rather we think of that P e r s o n o r ev ent, we allow our feelings full reign, prec isely as the way we e x p er i e n ce th e p erson co nc erned . d ' To at te mp t t o dis e n g a ge fro m our f e eli ngs involves something quite •ff e r e n t . H e r e as above , we t ry to w ith dr aw from the intentional dimension. 164 • INWARD N ESS Perhaps you find Aunt Mabel's sense o f humour irritat i ng. It seems stra i n e d and push y , calculated t o take over an d grab atten tion. But you tell y ou r s el f t hat you're overreactin g. It's just some t hing abo ut you, which makes y o u react like this to a perf ectly normal w ay of being. You try to strangl e the reaction by treating it as just a reaction, not a valid perception of ann oy in g features. We do somethin g similar when we decide that we oughtn't to f e el g uilty for something we do or feel and treat t he spa sms like some irrat i o n a l holdover from our childhood training. Disengage ment and what we m i ght call engaged exploration are t wo quit e different things. They carry u s i n contrary direction s and are extremely difficult to combine. The p o int of this contrast is to see that the option for an epistem o l ogy which privileges disengagement and control isn't self-evident l y righ t. It require s certain assumptions. If the great a g e of rationalism and empir i ci sm launched itself on the "way of ideas", i t was because it took certain thing s fo r granted. Epistem i cally, a s has just been mentioned, it was based in par t on a belief in mechanism as against the universe of meaningful order, of the ontic logos. To see the world as the embodiment of Ideas is to see knowledge a s a ttained b y attuning the soul's gaze. We get to it by engaging more fully w ith t his order, turning the eye of the soul towards it in Plato's imag e; i n Aristotle's formulation, we come to knowledge when the eidos of our nous a nd that of the object are one.

• From The Great Transformation (2006)

  Amos had delivered a swingeing blow to Israel’s self-esteem. He wanted to puncture the national ego. This was one of the earliest expressions in Israel of the spirituality of self-surrender, which was at the heart of the Axial ideal. Instead of using religion to shore up their sense of self-worth, the Israelites had to learn to transcend their self-interest and rule with justice and equity. The prophet was a walking example of what the Greeks would call kenosis, “emptying.” Amos felt that his subjectivity had been taken over by God.12 He was not speaking his own words, but Yahweh’s; the prophet had left himself behind in passionate empathy with his God, who had experienced the injustice committed by Israel as a personal humiliation.13 This was an important moment. Axial Age religion would be conditioned by a sympathy that enabled people to feel with others. Amos did not experience anger on his own part; he felt the anger of Yahweh himself. Hosea, who was active in the northern kingdom at about the same time as Amos, learned sympathy with Yahweh through a tragedy in his own life, when his wife, Gomer, became a sacred prostitute in the fertility cult of Baal.14 This, Hosea realized, was what Yahweh, the holy one of Israel, must feel when his people went whoring after other gods. He saw his longing to win Gomer back as a sign that Yahweh also yearned after unfaithful Israel, and was prepared to give her another chance.15 Here again, Hosea was assailing a cherished tradition—in this case, Baal worship. He would have to convince the people that Yahweh was not simply a god of war but could also bring them a good harvest. Like Elijah, he was trying to oust Baal and persuade Israelites to worship Yahweh alone. But where Elijah had concentrated on purifying the cult, Hosea’s concern was ethical. Baal worship had led to moral decline—to “perjury and lies, slaughter, theft, adultery and violence, murder after murder.”16 There was sexual laxity, because everybody was frequenting the sacred prostitutes, and sprawling around drunkenly after sacrificial banquets. Instead of giving spiritual and moral guidance, priests consulted idols that were only blocks of wood.17

• From The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures (2018)

  Freud was perhaps struggling with this fact when he asked himself, at the beginning of chapter 7 in Civilization, why was it that animals did not have cultural struggles? He did not answer his question, and yet it is clear that animals lack the intellectual apparatus to do so. We do not. The degree to which the nefarious impulses are present in human societies and how much they influence public behavior is not evenly distributed across populations. To begin with, there are gender differences. 10 Males are still more likely to be physically violent than females in keeping with their ancestral social roles—hunting and fighting for territory—and females can be violent too, but it is apparent that the majority of males are caring individuals and that not all females are. There is plenty of nourishing affect to be found on both sides of the aisle. Acting on impulses, good or bad, has other constraints. It depends on individual temperament, for example, which in turn depends on how drives and emotions are typically deployed in an individual as a result of numerous factors—genetics, early life development and experience, and historical and social environments, where family structure and education figure prominently. The expression of temperament is even influenced by current social environment and by climate. 11 Cooperative strategies have been a part of the homeostatically driven biological makeup of humans, which means that the germ of conflict resolution is present in human groups, along with the tendency for conflicts. It seems reasonable to assume, however, that the balance between salutary cooperation and destructive competition depends, in substantial part, on civilizational containment and on fair and democratic governance, representative of those who are governed. In turn, civilizational containment depends on knowledge, discernment, and at least a modicum of the wisdom that results from education, scientific and technical progress, and the modulation of humanist traditions, religious as well as secular. Barring such determined efforts of civilization, groups of individuals with distinct cultural identities and the related psychological, physical, and sociopolitical features will struggle to obtain what they need or want by the available means. This is precisely what the homeostatically driven biological makeup of the groups naturally promotes, once they coalesce as a fuzzy-bordered entity. Other than through the despotic control of one group over another or others, the only way to prevent or resolve destructive struggles is to engage in cooperative behaviors, the sorts of intelligent negotiations of conflict that hallmark human societies at their civilized best. The mounting of such cooperative efforts also requires the presence of governance leaders accountable to the individuals expected to benefit, along with an educated citizenry that can implement the efforts and monitor the results. I note that it may appear, at first glance, that when we turn to governance, we leave the realm of biology. But that is simply not true. The protracted negotiating process required for governance efforts is necessarily embedded in the biology of affect, knowledge, reasoning, and decision making.

• From The Diary of a Young Girl (The Definitive Edition) (2020)

  Of course, there are many different opinions on this topic, and it’s not surprising to hear it frequently discussed in times of war, but. . . arguing so much about politics is just plain stupid! Let them laugh, swear, make bets, grumble and do whatever they want as long as they stew in their own juice. But don’t let them argue, since that only makes things worse. The people who come from outside bring us a lot of news that later proves to be untrue; however, up to now our radio has never lied. Jan, Miep, Mr. Kleiman, Bep and Mr. Kugler go up and down in their political moods, though Jan least of all. Here in the Annex the mood never varies. The end-less debates over the invasion, air raids, speeches, etc., etc., are accompanied by countless exclamations such as “Eempossible!, Urn Gottes Willen* [* Oh, for heaven’s sake]. If they’re just getting started now, how long is it going to last!, It’s going splendidly, But, great!” Optimists and pessimists -- not to mention the realists -- air their opinions with unflagging energy, and as with everything else, they’re all certain that they have a monopoly on the truth. It annoys a certain lady that her spouse has such supreme faith in the British, and a certain husband attacks his wife because of her teasing and dispar- aging remarks about his beloved nation! And so it goes from early in the morning to late at night; the funny part is that they never get tired of it. I’ve discovered a trick, and the effect is overwhelming, just like pricking someone with a pin and watching them jump. Here’s how it works: I start talking about politics. All it takes is a single question, a word or a sentence, and before you know it, the entire family is involved! As if the German “Wehrmacht News” and the English BBC weren’t enough, they’ve now added special air-raid announcements. In a word, splendid. But the other side of the coin is that the British Air Force is operating around the clock. Not unlike the German propaganda machine, which is cranking out lies twenty-four hours a day! So the radio is switched on every morning at eight (if not earlier) and is listened to every hour until nine, ten or even eleven at night. This is the best evidence yet that the adults have infinite patience, but also that their brains have turned to mush (some of them, I mean, since I wouldn’t want to insult anyone). One broadcast, two at the most, should be enough to last the entire day. But no, those old nincompoops. . . never mind, I’ve already said it all! “Music While You Work,” the Dutch broadcast from England, Frank Phillips or Queen Wilhelmina, they each get a turn and fInd a willing listener. If the adults aren’t eating or sleeping, they’re clustered around the radio talking about eating, sleeping and politics. Whew!

• From The Diary of a Young Girl (The Definitive Edition) (2020)

  van D. didn’t move, but stayed by her writing desk, looking for a handkerchief. “You’ve got to apologize first.” “All right, I hereby offer my apologies, but only because if I don’t, we’ll be here till midnight.” Mrs. van D. had to laugh in spite of herself. She got up and went toward the door, where she felt obliged to give us an explanation. (By us I mean Father, Mother and me; we were busy doing the dishes.) “He wasn’t like this at home,” she said. “I’d have belted him so hard he’d have gone flying down the stairs [!]. He’s never been so insolent. This isn’t the first time he’s deserved a good hiding. That’s what you get with a modern upbringing, modern children. I’d never have grabbed my mother like that. Did you treat your mother that way, Mr. Frank?” She was very upset, pacing back and forth, saying whatever came into her head, and she still hadn’t gone upstairs. Finally, at long last, she made her exit. Less than five minutes later she stormed back down the stairs, with her cheeks all puffed out, and flung her apron on a chair. When I asked if she was through, she replied that she was going downstairs. She tore down the stairs like a tornado, probably straight into the arms of her Putti. She didn’t come up again until eight, this time with her husband. Peter was dragged from the attic, given a merciless scolding and showered with abuse: ill-mannered brat, no-good bum, bad example, Anne this, Margot that, I couldn’t hear the rest. Everything seems to have calmed down again today! Yours, Anne M. Frank P.S. Tuesday and Wednesday evening our beloved Queen addressed the country. She’s taking a vacation so she’ll be in good health for her return to the Netherlands. She used words like “soon, when I’m back in Holland,” “a swift liberation,” “heroism” and “heavy burdens.” This was followed by a speech by Prime Minister Gerbrandy. He has such a squeaky little child’s voice that Mother instinctively said, “Oooh.” A clergyman, who must have borrowed his voice from Mr. Edel, concluded by asking God to take care of the Jews, all those in concentration camps and prisons and everyone working in Germany. THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1944 Dearest Kitty, Since I’ve left my entire “junk box” -- including my fountain pen -- upstairs and I’m not allowed to disturb the grown-ups during their nap time (until two-thirty), you’ll have to make do with a letter in pencil. I’m terribly busy at the moment, and strange as it may sound, I don’t have enough time to get through my pile of work. Shall I tell you briefly what I’ve got to do? Well then, before tomorrow I have to finish reading the first volume of a biography of Galileo Galilei, since it has to be returned to the library.

• From The Principles of Psychology (Volume 1 of 2) (1890)

  This account of Steinthal's brings out very clearly the difference between our psychological conceptions and what are called concepts in logic. In logic a concept is unalterable; but what are popularly called our 'conceptions of things' alter by being used. The aim of 'Science' is to attain conceptions so adequate and exact that we shall never need to change them. There is an everlasting struggle in every mind between the tendency to keep unchanged, and the tendency to renovate, its ideas. Our education is a cease-less compromise between the conservative and the progressive factors. Every new experience must be disposed of under some old head. The great point is to find the head which has to be least altered to take it in. Certain Polynesian natives, seeing horses for the first time, called them pigs, that being the nearest head. My child of two played for a week with the first orange that was given him, calling it a 'ball.' He called the first whole eggs he saw 'potatoes' having been accustomed to see his 'eggs' broken into a glass, and his potatoes without the skin. A folding pocket-corkscrew he unhesitatingly called 'bad-scissors.' Hardly any one of us can make new heads easily when fresh experiences come. Most of us grow more and more enslaved to the stock conceptions with which we have once become familiar, and less and less capable of assimilating impressions in any but the old ways. Old-fogyism, in short, is the inevitable terminus to which life sweeps us on. Objects which violate our established habits of 'apperception' are simply not taken account of at all; or, if on some occasion we are forced by dint of argument to admit their existence, twenty-four hours later the admission is as if it were not, and every trace of the unassimilable truth has vanished from our thought. Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  His relation to Matilda was political and ecclesiastical. The charge of his enemies that he entertained carnal intimacy with her is monstrous and incredible, considering his advanced age and unrelenting war against priestly concubinage.76 The countess was the most powerful princess in Northern Italy, and afforded to the pope the best protection against a possible invasion of a Northern army. She was devoted to Hildebrand as the visible head of the Church, and felt proud and happy to aid him. In 1077 she made a reversionary grant of her dominions to the patrimony of Peter, and thus increased the fatal gift of Constantine, from which Dante derives the evils of the Church. She continued the war with Henry, and aided Conrad and Henry V. in the rebellion against their father. In the political interest of the papacy she contracted, in her fifty-fifth year, a second marriage with Guelph, a youth of eighteen, the son of the Duke of Bavaria, the most powerful enemy of Henry IV. (1089); but the marriage, it seems, was never consummated, and was dissolved a few years afterwards (1095). She died, 1115. It is supposed by many that Dante’s Matilda, who carried him over the river Lethe to Beatrice, is the famous countess;77 but Dante never mentions Gregory VII., probably on account of his quarrel with the emperor. Canossa has become a proverbial name for the triumph of priestcraft over kingcraft.78 Streams of blood have been shed to wipe out the disgrace of Henry’s humiliation before Hildebrand. The memory of that scene was revived in the Culturkampf between the State of Prussia and the Vatican from 1870 to 1887. At the beginning of the conflict, Prince Bismarck declared in the Prussian Chambers that "he would never go to Canossa"; but ten years afterwards he, found it politic to move in that direction, and to make a compromise with Leo XIII., who proved his equal as a master of diplomacy. The anti-papal May-laws were repealed, one by one, till nothing is left of them except the technical Anzeigepflicht, a modern term for investiture. The Roman Church gained new strength in Prussia and Germany from legal persecution, and enjoys now more freedom and independence than ever, and much more than the Protestant Church, which has innocently suffered from the operation of the May-laws. § 17. Renewal of the Conflict. Two Kings and Two Popes. The result of Canossa was civil war in Germany and Italy king against king, pope against pope, nobles against nobles, bishops against bishops, father against son, and son against father. It lasted several years. Gregory and Henry died in exile. Gregory was defeated by Henry, Henry by his own rebellious son. The long wars of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines originated in that period. The Duke Guelph IV. of Bavaria was present at Forchheim when Henry was deposed, and took up arms against him. The popes sided with the Guelphs against the Hohenstaufen emperors and the Ghibellines.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  To sin, he says, is human, but to persist in sin is devilish; to fall is not ruinous to the soul, but to remain on the ground is. The appeal had its desired effect, and cannot fail to make a salutary impression upon every reader, provided we substitute some really great offence for the change of a mode of life which can only be regarded as a temporary and abnormal form of Christian practice. By excessive self-mortifications John undermined his health, and returned about 380 to Antioch. There he was immediately ordained deacon by Meletius in 386, and by Flavian was made presbyter. By his eloquence and his pure and earnest character he soon acquired great reputation and the love of the whole church. During the sixteen or seventeen years of his labors in Antioch he wrote the greater part of his Homilies and Commentaries, his work on the Priesthood, a consolatory Epistle to the despondent Stagirius, and an admonition to a young widow on the glory of widowhood and the duty of continuing in it. He disapproved second marriage, not as sinful or illegal, but as inconsistent with an ideal conception of marriage and a high order of piety. After the death of Nectarius (successor of Gregory Nazianzen), towards the end of the year 397, Chrysostom was chosen, entirely without his own agency, patriarch of Constantinople. At this post he labored several years with happy effect. But his unsparing sermons aroused the anger of the empress Eudoxia, and his fame excited the envy of the ambitious patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria. An act of Christian love towards the persecuted Origenistic monks of Egypt involved him in the Origenistic controversy, and at last the united influence of Theophilus and Eudoxia overthrew him. Even the sympathy of the people and of Innocent I., the bishop of Rome, was unavailing in his behalf. He died in banishment on the fourteenth of September, A.D. 407, thanking God for all.2018 The Greeks celebrate his memorial day on the thirteenth of November, the Latins on the twenty-seventh of January, the day on which his remains in 438 were solemnly deposited in the Church of the Apostles in Constantinople with those of the emperors and patriarchs. Persecution and undeserved sufferings tested the character of Chrysostom, and have heightened his fame. The Greek church honors him as the greatest teacher of the church, approached only by Athanasius and the three Cappadocians. His labors fall within the comparatively quiet period between the Trinitarian and the Christological controversies. He was not therefore involved in any doctrinal controversy except the Origenistic; and in that he had a very innocent part, as his unspeculative turn of mind kept him from all share in the Origenistic errors. Had he lived a few decades later he would perhaps have fallen under suspicion of Nestorianism; for he belonged to the same Antiochian school with his teacher Diodorus of Tarsus, his fellow-student Theodore of Mopsuestia, and his successor Nestorius.

• From The Diary of a Young Girl (The Definitive Edition) (2020)

  Things have gotten so bad in Holland that hordes of children stop passersby in the streets to beg for a piece of bread. I could spend hours telling you about the suffering the war has brought, but I’d only make myself more miserable. All we can do is wait, as calmly as possible, for it to end. Jews and Christians alike are waiting, the whole world is waiting, and many are waiting for death. Yours, Anne SATURDAY, JANUARY 30, 1943 Dearest Kitty, I’m seething with rage, yet I can’t show it. I’d like to scream, stamp my foot, give Mother a good shaking, cry and I don’t know what else because of the nasty words, mocking looks and accusations that she hurls at me day after day, piercing me like arrows from a tightly strung bow, which are nearly impossible to pull from my body. I’d like to scream at Mother, Margot, the van Daans, Dussel and Father too: “Leave me alone, let me have at least one night when I don’t cry myself to sleep with my eyes burning and my head pounding. Let me get away, away from everything, away from this world!” But I can’t do that. I can’t let them see my doubts, or the wounds they’ve inflicted on me. I couldn’t bear their sympathy or their good-humored derision. It would only make me want to scream even more. Everyone thinks I’m showing off when I talk, ridicu lous when I’m silent, insolent when I answer, cunning when I have a good idea, lazy when I’m tired, selfish when I eat one bite more than I should, stupid, cowardly, calculating, etc., etc. All day long I hear nothing but what an exasperating child I am, and although I laugh it off and pretend not to mind, I do mind. I wish I could ask God to give me another personality, one that doesn’t antagonize everyone. But that’s impossible. I’m stuck with the character I was born with, and yet I’m sure I’m not a bad person. I do my best to please everyone, more than they’d ever suspect in a million years. When I’m upstairs, I try to laugh it off because I don’t want them to see my troubles. More than once, after a series of absurd reproaches, I’ve snapped at Mother: “I don’t care what you say. Why don’t you just wash your hands of me -- I’m a hopeless case.” Of course, she’d tell me not to talk back and virtually ignore me for two days. Then suddenly all would be forgotten and she’d treat me like everyone else. It’s impossible for me to be all smiles one day and venomous the next. I’d rather choose the golden mean, which isn’t so golden, and keep my thoughts to myself. Perhaps sometime I’ll treat the others with the same contempt as they treat me. Oh, if only I could.