Why so much anger in activism?
Again and again, I see activism that is born out of anger. Or another strong emotion.
The lawyer who told me she was driven to fight for women’s rights because of an assault on a childhood friend.
The successful entrepreneur turned philanthropist who told me he never wanted to live in the poverty his parents had experienced, that drove his business and the investments he made later in his life.
The social entrepreneur who told me she couldn’t stand to see what we were doing to the environment; that it caused her physical pain to think about the state of the planet.
I don’t think all activism is driven out of anger — of course not, we can’t hold on to any emotion — but it’s a common thread that seems, somehow, relevant to ‘the cause’.
But, why?
Why do we think that? Why do we think it has any role at all? Why do some individuals I meet feel that they need to hold on to it to stay motivated? That, only when we dip into the depths of an emotion, particularly a negative one, will we be able to create change?
But, what if any emotion taken too seriously is destructive? What if we are innocently diverting ourselves from the very things we want to be doing? Staying stuck in an emotional groundhog day?
