Outrage and Inner Peace

    By Verified Atheist on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 4:17pm |

    A friend of mine once said to me:

    There's a fine line between contentment and complacency.

    Now, my friend's point was meant as an argument against being complacent, but I happen to think it cuts both ways. It's been decades since I was a teenager, and over that time I've worked more and more on establishing inner peace, and as a result I am a more peaceful man.

    Am I too peaceful? Maybe so.

    Don't take this small piece as a lecture to be more peaceful, but rather as a question (or set of questions) from someone who understands the value of well-placed outrage.

    Can inner peace and outrage co-exist?

    If not, are there equally viable alternatives to outrage for those wishing to maintain inner peace? I.e., is action without outrage sufficient?

    I'll be honest, other than talking with my friends and family and my "contributions" to dagblog, I've not taken action. So another question: Is action without outrage as likely?

    Update to add this contribution from someone who's worshipped for his peacefulness:

    WWJD?

    Comments

    Can inner peace and outrage co-exist?

    Great question.  

    Some of my thoughts these days focus on whether the outrage that clearly is out there can be channeled into disciplined, thoughtful and effective action, or whether things have gotten so far out of hand and there is so much anger that for too many of our fellow citizens who are justifiably angry and outraged, the temptations to give in to violent, or just unthoughtful, knee-jerk, f***-the-system-and-the-authorities behavior, will prove too great to resist.

    I remember seeing an interview with Robert F. Kennedy in which he responded to criticisms that his brother, President Kennedy, had been too timid and too slow to respond to the civil rights crisis.  RFK's response--I'm paraphrasing but I think this is close--was to dismiss such charges, saying that what his brother realized was that prior to the Bull Connor Birmingham events of 1963, in which the police commissioner directed the use of fire hoses and dogs against nonviolent protestors, not enough people were "worked up" about the situation, but that after that the situation changed.

    Sometimes it does take enough people getting "worked up" about a situation for new possibilities for dealing with it to open up.  It's what "worked up" leads to that gets dicey as to whether the shorter-term outcomes are more good than bad.  


    by AmericanDreamer on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 5:40pm

    It's a funny thing about the word, "outrage". I remember reading some time ago that marketing research had indicated the word was one of the most effective in impacting baby boomers. Then I noticed how often Republicans use the word to effect. I started listening for Democrats' use of the word. My arm chair anecdotal research thus shows more frequent and more impactful use of the word than Democrats.

    My arm chair research then fed my unfounded opinion that Republicans are able to express outrage and indignation much more convincingly than Democrats.(that is, by elected officials).I think it has a lot to do with venal church language.

    Just impressions.

    Anyway, I think you've opened a very interesting line of inquiry and I do think it is very relevant to the scene today.

    One of my great delusions was reading in later life that Thoreau went home to his mother's for lunch. Some peaceful life, subsidized.


    by Oxy Mora on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 6:24pm

    One of my great delusions was reading in later life that Thoreau went home to his mother's for lunch.

    That is, when he wasn't mooching off of Emerson... (You know that shack he built on Walden Pond? It was on Emerson's property, and my understanding is that he enjoyed many meals at the Emerson household during that period, and crashed at the Emersons while he was building the shack.)


    by Verified Atheist on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 7:40pm

    Do I detect a bit of disdain for Thoreau from you and Oxy?  Remember:

    If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

    Wasn't the whole point of Walden to be able to just think and be.  Is a life of pure contemplation just okay for Eastern religions philosophies?


    by EmmaZahn on Sun, 10/16/2011 - 10:46pm

    Disdain is a bit too strong of word to describe my emotions towards him. Humorous realization of his contradictions, perhaps. wink

    He wrote some nicely profound things. He also wrote some godawful boring things.


    by Verified Atheist on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 6:25am

    Humorous realization of his contradictions, perhaps. wink

    ​Did you know that Thoreau more than earned his keep at Emerson House?  

    On April 18, 1841, Thoreau moved into the Emerson house] There, from 1841–1844, he served as the children's tutor, editorial assistant, and repair man/gardener. For a few months in 1843, he moved to the home of William Emerson on Staten Island, and tutored the family sons while seeking contacts among literary men and journalists in the city who might help publish his writings, including his future literary representative Horace Greeley.

    Thoreau returned to Concord and worked in his family's pencil factory, which he continued to do for most of his adult life. He rediscovered the process to make a good pencil out of inferior graphite by using clay as the binder; this invention improved upon graphite found in New Hampshire and bought in 1821 by relative Charles Dunbar. (The process of mixing graphite and clay, known as the Conté process, was patented by Nicolas-Jacques Conté in 1795). His other source had been Tantiusques, an Indian operated mine in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Later, Thoreau converted the factory to produce plumbago (graphite), which was used to ink typesetting machines.
    Hired help to the Emerson's and pencil manufacturer.  Before that he taught school and ran one with his brother.  Hmmm, not really the slacker he is often portrayed.  Seems he did know something about desperate enterprises.
     

    by EmmaZahn on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 12:20pm

    Now you've ruined my fun mischaracterizations of Thoreau. You happy? crying


    by Verified Atheist on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 12:27pm

    Wouldn't say happy, but pleased to rectify the mischaracterizations.  Would it make you feel better if I posted something somewhat unflattering about Emerson?

     


    by EmmaZahn on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 1:10pm

    Only if it can be incorporated into an enjoyable skit!


    by Verified Atheist on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 1:17pm

    How many years did he screw off looking for the right kind of clay. And what about lead poisoning?wink

     


    by Oxy Mora on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 2:32pm

    Jesus actually did have a problem with money changers of his day, he overturned the tables used for the money exchange. These moneychangers would charge a percentage for changing foreign currency into currency that could be used in Jerusalem. Most involved in being charged the percentage were poor.

    One interpretation is that he wasn't happy about moneychangers having the support of the church (Herod's temple) in taking advantage of extorting of poor people.

    Matthew 21:12, Mark 11:15, John 2:8


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 12:13am

    They also knew the poor couldn't  afford anything other than a few sparrows or some other smaller animal to be acceptable in their worship.

    They gouged the poor, knowing the poor couldn't go anywhere else.

    Even the later churches figured they too could use this scheme, to get families to keep their loved ones out of hell. How much money you got?

    Whatever the market will bear. Capitalism at it's worst.


    by Resistance on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 12:55am

    Oh, I'm very familiar with the source of the WWJD poster I included, although I think the bullwhip is a bit of artistic license!

    That Jesus himself got outraged was meant to underline the question of whether it is possible to have inner peace and outrage. If one were to take the gospels as the gospel truth, then that would suggest that it is possible, at least for the perfect.


    by Verified Atheist on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 6:28am

    As people might have noticed; I am rather moody.

    Sometimes I wish to shout from the mountain tops and at other times I just figure man's inhumanity to man has been going on for a hundred thousand years so why worry about it!

    I refuse to watch anything with Gary Senise since he was caught contributing to some violent militant right wing orgs--now of course he just claims to wish to help the returning vet while voting for office holders who would take away all they can from funds dedicated to the returning veteran....see how easy it is to become enraged?

    But I will watch anything in which Malkovitch appears and yet I know he is more conservative than Buchanan! ha

    As if my choice in entertainment has anything to do with anything.

    This Cain character tells us he will build a twenty foot electric fence on our borders that would kill those attempting to arrive in our garden of eden. Never mind that the sale of special plastic ladders will most probably spike along with our national electric bill. And never mind that he now claims this entire plan was a joke. See, just thinking about this raises my blood pressure.

    In the end, as others have pointed out, it may be better to at least attempt to focus one's outrage rather than let it spread thin.

     


    by Richard Day on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 9:23am

    at least attempt to focus one's outrage rather than let it spread thin.

    Where is the darn moral majority?

    People are losing their homes, people have no health care, the price of food, if you can get it is skyrocketing.

    Why hasn't anyone asked them, what is YOUR solution?

    "If you were God  almighty himself, what would you do? WWJD" ?

    Of course the evangelicals would say," if you don't work, you don't eat"

    Here is where the BS spreading, is thin.

    Why does the Moral majority, not speak up against those who fight tooth and nail against Obama's job plan?  If you say "they must work, to get fed" otherwise you're a leech;  and yet you provide no jobs for them to work at, then your request for blessings is a fraud.  

    Remind the Moral  majority, that their saying to friends and neighbors, their  brothers and sisters, " be well fed and be well clothed"; as though wishing them blessings;  yet doing nothing to lift a finger, to make sure they are well fed and well clothed? 

    Or that Good folks of the Moral majority will tell the poor " have good health" yet then deny them access to good health care, because the poor cant afford it."

    The evidence is clear the Moral hypocrisy is in the majority; I'm imperfect and I can see it clearly.

    How does the Perfect God of these people;  view their hypocrisy?  

    You're absolutely right Dick, We need to focus on the very foundational support of those, who continue to place people in power, who only "have a form of godly devotion, but proving false to it's power."

    Remind them to meditate on the phrase "God Bless America" meditate on why and who should get the blessings; rest assured, it isn't the hypocrites.  

    Come Lord Jesus, clean house.

    (As you can tell I get moody too).


    by Resistance on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 2:25pm

    You can't make the Conservative Evangelicals feel guilty by using Christian tenets against them. The Evangelicals are blessed because God has chosen them. The people who are in need have some fault internally that makes them poor.

    "God helps those who helps themselves", is the common refrain. Job was put through hell on Earth, but because he was faithful, Job recovered all that he had lost and more. Or as Cain says, "If you're poor, it's your own fault."

    Of course one has to tune out the messages about the meek inheriting the Earth and the eyes of the needle a wealthy person has to pass through to get into heaven. Properity preachers like Osteen and Dollar carry the day.

    What the Evangelicals fail to realize that the Christianist God that they worship might as well be a white racist since blacks and minorities would go unnoticed by his ministry according to the Evangelicals.

    Compare the evangelism of Martin Luther King Jr and that of many Evangelicals. The two belief systems are miles apart. The Evangelicals, when pressed, consider King a heretic Communist. They will not feel guilty about amassing wealth, the waelth is their birthright as newborn Christians.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 3:06pm

    I am also reminded that years ago, an appeal was made to the Christians in Alabama to vote to change a tax code imposed in 1901 that created an undue tax burden on the poor. A United Methodist Church in Alabama made a Biblically based appeal for tax reform.

    http://na.brickriver.com/files/oFiles_Library_XZXLCZ/NACTaxFairnessPosit...

    The Alabama voters rejected the tax reform proposal.


    by rmrd0000 on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 5:04pm

    Imagine that!!!


    by Richard Day on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 6:43pm

    Your link has good scriptural references

    Beginning page 6 - 8

    Scripture:

    "Few biblical mandates are as clear as those to care for and nurture those in need"

    ----------------

    What these false Christians give to others, is what they will receive on judgment day.

    When they say "when did we see you hungry, we did we see you in need"?

    Dicks right though ......................... Imagine that.

    Darn hypocrites.

    When they say we're a Christian nation; ....are they kidding or just plain LIARS?

    Their very actions speak loudly, they disown the teachings.


    by Resistance on Mon, 10/17/2011 - 7:22pm

    Inner peace and outrage can co-exist, I believe, but, it's very rare because it's hard to balance the two simultaneously without one of them overtaking the other. I've managed it once in my lifetime so far and I will tell you, it left a deep mark in my memory.

    A viable alternative to outrage might be simple determination. Instead of railing against an injustice, dedicate an effort to altering the situation until you find sufficient resolution.

    But, that sounds kind of...unenergetic, does it not? And unenergetic is not the same thing as inner peace.

    Or, you could always adhere to the advice of that sage, Steven Tyler.
    Don't get mad. Get even.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdsUY7rNStI

    Innerestin' question, VA.

     


    by wabby on Tue, 10/18/2011 - 11:32am

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