GET MAD BUT DON'T GET IGNORANT: Part II

Hey Bruh! I am aware of what some people who knew me in the past and who know me now are going to say when they discover that I wrote this blog or after seeing the title. They will say something to the effect of; What! Or really! Why? Because I was a hot head, and to some degree I still am! The biggest difference between me back in the day and my contemporary self is that I have learned to use or rather I am still learning the proper use of anger! As both a teenager and a young man, I was mad every day! Mad at the world, my dad, and myself, and although I really didn’t know it, I was mad at God too! I fought or was looking for a fight all the time. If I wasn’t fighting, I would talk violently. If I wasn’t talking violently, I would be thinking violently. And because I thought, talked, and acted violently, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that I was immature, foolish, and flat-out ignorant! The truth about this kind of mentality or disposition is that it will control your life and severely limit your livelihood if it is not dealt with properly! Why? Because anger is in our nature! That is to say; we were born with this emotion and since it never leaves us nor is it supposed to, just like any of our other individual emotions, if you do not control it, it will control you! That’s when ignorance takes over!

By the way, that was Cain's problem. Before he killed his brother Able, God came to Cain after he got mad when his gift was not acceptable and showed him how to properly use his anger. But to the demise of Able, Cain would not listen! We will breakdown Cain’s disposition in a proceeding post but for now, suffice it to say that Cain got mad, got ignorant, and intentionally misappropriated violence with a homicidal act that unleashed vengeance upon himself, from which his descendants to this day are still trying to flee! 

THE MISAPPROPRIATION OF VIOLENCE

I am also quite aware that the frequent use of the word violence in this post and in this blog will be triggering for many! As inartful and insensitive to them as it may seem, what I am going to try to convey to everyone here is that there are two domains in which violence will occur! One is spiritual, and the other is natural! However, I want to make myself clear when I say that abuse of any kind is wrong, unacceptable, and a crime in both of those domains! So, to misappropriate violence or to inflict spiritual, emotional, and physical pain on someone because you can, because you want to, and even if it’s the only thing you know how to do, is the definition of willful ignorance and is a manifestation of pure evil! Period!

The misappropriation of violence is nothing new! From the murder outside of the Garden of Eden to the mass casualty events of today, history is replete with example after horrible example of humanity at its absolute worst! In the United States alone, far too many of our citizens have unfortunately become victims of violence! However, just as regrettable is the fact that every one of us can bear witness to the rapid increase of misappropriated violence and in addition to that have had to suffer from the collateral damage that was inflicted on us by the perpetrators, as those acts of willful ignorance and pure evil have become commonplace in this country!

Anger permeates the very fiber of the American way of life because we are all human! But interesting enough, whether the violence that anger can ignite is misappropriated in the heat of passion, during an unfolding plot of domestic terror, or by someone with a serial mentality, we put every act of violence into the same box and call it mental illness! Certainly, no one in their right mind is going to commit an atrocity! On the other hand, most if not all of the people who have been diagnosed with or are suffering from mental illness are just trying to live a normal life and are not trying to harm anyone, and that includes themselves! So, the question you should be asking is “How do you know the difference?”

You will know you are on your way to understanding the principles of the proper use of anger when you begin to recognize the difference between anger provoked and ignorance unleashed! The difference is correctly appropriated violence is an effective instrument of peace, and conversely, when violence is misappropriated, it is a deadly weapon of destruction! For example, if I can defeat my adversary with my mere presence, then I know that I have appropriately used violence because it was more effective than a verbal threat or a physical assault! This means that I got mad, but I did not get ignorant! However, in a world that is full of violence or to be more accurate, in a world that is full of ignorance, the question now becomes; Where do you go to see an example of the proper use of anger on display?

THE LOVE OF MANY HAS WAXED COLD

I meant that sincerely! Where can you go in this world and find anger used properly? The answer to that question turns out to be very difficult to find and when you find it, the answer is very difficult to comprehend! This is because when it comes to human emotions; as time goes by, things stay the same! In other words, this is because human beings are angry! We always have been, and we always will be! In fact, the people that are a part of this generation or who are living on the planet right now are not just angry, they are angrier than ever before! Jealousy, hate, and insecurity are just a few of the emotional rollercoaster rides we strap in for or deal with daily that have totally reengineered the dynamics of interpersonal relationships or have completely changed the way that we treat one another!

To put it bluntly, we just don’t love each other like we should! Why? It is because in the name of individual rights, selfishness reigns, and being selfish does not allow you to “love your brother and sister like you love yourself!” Or prefer their rights wants, and needs over your own! That just doesn’t happen a lot, if at all anymore! Consequently, because “the love of many has waxed cold,” it is much easier for us as humans to get mad, get ignorant, and stay that way! That is why we see the hideous face of murder uncovered every time the ignorant make the declaration, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” We recognize that face because we have seen it in our own mirror when we got mad, got ignorant, and hated our brother and sister without a cause! 

Today, human beings have become implacable and are deviously malicious! In other words, we do not forgive, we hold grudges, and we plan or invent ways to hurt each other because we have hurt ourselves! This still happens even though it seems like everyone has a life coach or a counselor! How much money has been wasted on paying someone to tell you what you already know about yourself or on just talking for the sake of talking? Ironically, after all of that talking, some people will still be mad at something that happened or that they perceived to have happened to them 10, 20, and 30 years ago! Predictably, every time that they are triggered by it, they get mad, and they get ignorant! Hard to find the proper use of anger around them!

Today, human beings have become more prideful and deceitfully contentious! In other words, we think that we are better than everyone else, and we will lie, cheat, and steal to prove it! We will create a solution where there is no problem and start a fight to force compliance because we think that what we want is more important! Then we will control the narrative with repetitious mendacity to the point that we start believing our own lies and get violently ignorant when we are confronted with the truth! Hard to find the proper use of anger around them also! Now I could go on and on with examples of ignorance on full display but that’s not hard to find and that’s not what we are looking for! We need to see more of those who are in leadership at every level who are properly using anger being put on display so that the world can see and emulate them before we cross the line of no return! Or is it already too late?