October 20, 2003
I've little time this week to write as I am painting the holiday shack at Victor Harbor. I'm pretty tired in the evening.
But I have noticed a lot of anger in public life in Australia amongst the political elite. It mostly takes the form of revenge and payback for past wrongs, defeats and humilitations.
You hear about the anger in Tasmania where those in the forestry industry are consumed by anger towards the greens.
These examples of anger in public life reminded me of Seneca. He wrote about it.
This is his essay On Anger.
Why Seneca? Two reasons. First, I just happening to be glancing through Alain de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy between the breaks in painting.
Secondly, I'm full of anger in my personal life. It is eating away at me, turning me into a different kind of person.
And De Botton? It is easygoing, well written, easily understood, peppered with illustrations and pleasant to read. From what I can make out consolation is about soothing our spiritual aches. It is a kind of like those self-help books about achieving happiness that are touted on daytime TV.
He's a doctor of the soul who deals with life's emotional problem. Hence his text is working within the tradition of philosophy as a way of life.
Can he help us to deal with anger in our personal and public lives?
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I find writing my blog makes me angry, gotta give this one up when the year comes round, got another planned, all sweetness and light...
meatspace friends tell me my blog is 'so dark' compared to the me they know...