How do you manage anger for what is happening to this world?

[starchaser137]

Being scientific people, I believe that most of us would probably have been frustrated about climate change, and all the things that are happening. My question is simple. How do you manage that anger? People tell me that this is something we can't control, or it is something "off topic".

WHAT ELSE IS THE TOPIC?

I just want to know if you also think that humans are afraid of building bigger things and taking bold steps.

[iNow]

Is the anger you feel something that can be used to make the situation better? If so, then there’s no need for anger. Focus on making things better. If not, then your anger is only distracting you from finding those things that can help. 

Anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Try exercise and meditation instead, or whatever brings you joy. 

[Phi for All]

1 hour ago, starchaser137 said:

Being scientific people, I believe that most of us would probably have been frustrated about climate change, and all the things that are happening. My question is simple. How do you manage that anger? People tell me that this is something we can't control, or it is something "off topic".

WHAT ELSE IS THE TOPIC?

Emotions are great motivators, but many folks don't use them correctly, imo. They get passionate or angry or frustrated in a way that wastes the energy that could be used. It's like using a motor to spin a flat piece of metal. It just spins and does no work, but if you angle the metal so it resists the air you create a propeller, something that actually does some work.

So find something productive to achieve, and put all your anger and passion behind THAT. Don't just wave your hands.

2 hours ago, starchaser137 said:

I just want to know if you also think that humans are afraid of building bigger things and taking bold steps.

Be careful assigning behavior like this to all humans. We've prospered as a species partly by balancing our fears and our curiosities. Boldness isn't lessened one bit by lots of careful research and testing the waters. Without careful consideration, "bold" becomes "rash and foolhardy".

[Hans de Vries]

Psychodelic assisted psychotherapy is great. Helps folks a lot with stuff like depression, anxiety, PTSD etc.

[dimreepr]

17 hours ago, iNow said:

Is the anger you feel something that can be used to make the situation better? If so, then there’s no need for anger. Focus on making things better. If not, then your anger is only distracting you from finding those things that can help. 

Anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Try exercise and meditation instead, or whatever brings you joy. 

Nice post +1 

Change what you can, enjoy what you can't...

15 hours ago, Phi for All said:

Emotions are great motivators

And easily manipulated, when they're not understood... +1 BTW

[Ken Fabian]

But don't assume you can't change or influence things and be too willing to give up. Get well informed first.

[Peterkin]

On 4/13/2021 at 2:09 PM, starchaser137 said:

Being scientific people, I believe that most of us would probably have been frustrated about climate change, and all the things that are happening. My question is simple. How do you manage that anger? People tell me that this is something we can't control, or it is something "off topic".

I don't have to manage or think about it very much anymore. I knew it was end-game in 1976, after no significant action had been taken on the recommendations of the First Earth Summit, after half a dozen attempts to introduce birth-control in other countries, and freedom of choice in the US had failed (it did a little better here) but especially after I encountered my first example of bottled water - shipped from France to Canada (wrap your head around that and see if it doesn't explode!) later to be followed by millions more - in non-returnable, non-recyclable (recycling wasn't introduced in Toronto until 1982) plastic bottles.  I could see that we were doomed.

I don't recall being angry. Exasperated, disappointed, ashamed, disgusted and profoundly sad.

I've had little flare-ups of anger over particular actions, events and speeches since then, but nothing strong enough to survive that ocean of  sorrow. 

Quote

just want to know if you also think that humans are afraid of building bigger things and taking bold steps.

Building bigger things and taking bold, blind steps is what got us into this extinction-spiral.

[CharonY]

21 minutes ago, Peterkin said:

I don't recall being angry. Exasperated, disappointed, ashamed, disgusted and profoundly sad.

Same here, and the pandemic has vastly deepened it.

[TheVat]

It's good to get the passion directed at public officials.   Of course that means getting their attention during that five minute window in each day when they're not preparing their reelection campaign or sucking up to the donor base.   Sure,  we can all do grassroots stuff and lower our personal carbon footprint and reject plastic packaging and try to send out green signals to friends, but it really takes massive public policy change to nudge whole nations in any direction.   Environmental laws aren't for we angry passionate ones,  they're for the large cohorts that are apathetic and don't think much beyond fashions and status and personal wealth.   

Money sent to an environmental group with lobbying and litigating powers may do as much as putting it into composting toilets (erm, investing in one,  that is!) and PV panels.   It's great if one can do both,  of course.  As Phi's analogy suggests,  it's great to make the propeller turn. 

Edited July 12, 2021 by TheVat
lack of opposable thumbs always a problem

[beecee]

1 hour ago, TheVat said:

It's good to get the passion directed at public officials.   Of course that means getting their attention during that five minute window in each day when they're not preparing their reelection campaign or sucking up to the donor base.   

While often directing my anger/disatisfaction towards public officials and politicians, I am always reminded of the question, "where do politicians come from" 😉

[Sensei]

11 hours ago, Peterkin said:

shipped from France to Canada (wrap your head around that and see if it doesn't explode!) later to be followed by millions more - in non-returnable, non-recyclable (recycling wasn't introduced in Toronto until 1982) plastic bottles.  I could see that we were doomed.

..you are doomed not because water is shipped half the world in plastic non-returnable bottles... but because politician's the only response to any ecological (and not ecological too) problem is: INCREASE TAXES. Shortage of water? Increase water costs. Too much trash? Not segregated garbage? Increase garbage collection costs.. etc. etc. The all people on the bottom of economy, are exploited the most, and suffer the most, and they are discouraged from any pro-ecological activities..

When I see politicians talking about yet another increase of taxes, I know they don't have idea what they are talking, they don't have idea what they are doing. And ecology, global warming, is just yet another pretext to increase taxes.. Instead of true fix..

 

The example of ecological problem: do you want to have streets free from beer glass bottles? Instead of deposit for the bottle (which is transferred to the end client), shop should be able to sell only 95-98% of quantity of beers which bottles clients returned. e.g. in the first week they sold 1000 beers, they must get back 950-980 bottles back from clients, to be able to sell another 1000 beers the next week. If they won't collect them, they cannot sell beer. Shop will beg their clients to come with empty bottles. Otherwise they won't earn money on beer.

Glass bottles returned to the shop, are reused without having to melt glass and/or fresh sand, which saves energy (coal/gas used to heat furnace etc). Trucks have to return plastic containers, with bottles, or without bottles, anyway. So more optimal is if they are full of empty bottles.

It's fight between industry producing glass bottles with ecology. The less people will return empty undamaged bottles, the better for companies making these bottles. They will get broken glass from trashcans anyway, melt it, and sell it once again to beverage companies.

In classical method of solving this issue i.e. deposit for the bottle, shops regularly refuse to accept empty bottles ("because they were not purchased here" or whatever they want reason). Clients are pissed off. They paid for beer in the bottle, paid cost of deposit for the bottle, and they can't get their money back. Bottles end up in trash, are smashed, and make even more garbage on the streets, and cities look like garbage dumps...

 

 

Edited July 13, 2021 by Sensei

[Intoscience]

We live in a throw away society and this is normal for the younger generations who know no different. Changing attitudes of the end user is just one part of a more complex problem. Companies, corporations and governments will not make any changes if its going to cost them money, unless they can disguise the cost of the change and offset it elsewhere (usually the end user).

I remember, and I'm sure most will, back when everything that was possible to re-use / utilise would have been - Jam jars for screws, nails, buttons etc... Torn clothes, socks and underwear sewed up and continued to be used, then reused for rags once unfit to wear... All just to name a few. 

My parents still live this way and produce very little waste. My children throw out everything unwanted, the very thought of wearing a sewn up item of clothing makes them cringe with embarrassment, they produce 4 x times as much waste as my parents, yet advocate changes must be made towards climate change...  

[dimreepr]

12 hours ago, beecee said:

While often directing my anger/disatisfaction towards public officials and politicians, I am always reminded of the question, "where do politicians come from" 😉

Indeed, like so many adults who attack Gretta, personally, for pointing out the obvious; because they can't be bothered to make a few adjustments.

People tend to be lazy and shy away from anything that threatens their comfort; so, if they can kick the can down the road, they will, because it's easier (and even if their looking down the barrel, it's easier to just run and hide).

So all we're left with, is the hope that our children will sort it out for us; but we're angry when they try...

22 minutes ago, Intoscience said:

We live in a throw away society

Because it's more profitable.

23 minutes ago, Intoscience said:

Companies, corporations and governments will not make any changes if its going to cost them money

Money is a strange concept, it's meant to make it easier to exchange what we have for what we need, yet all we care about is what we have, rather than what we need.

Go figure...

[Peterkin]

13 hours ago, Sensei said:

you are doomed not because water is shipped half the world in plastic non-returnable bottles...

The plastic bottles are a symptom. They are made from fossil fuel, the extraction of which is often accompanied by horrific oil spills. Their manufacture requires a great expenditure of energy, usually in the form of more fossil fuel and accompanied by waste products spewed into the air, land and water. They are then filled from a local spring that used to provide sustenance to a local ecology, and transported in giant shipping containers by behemoth cargo ships, churning and polluting the oceans, and decanted into transport truck that require highways to cut through natural habitats and use more fossil fuel to burn and spew into the air, water and land. Then they're schlepped home in more automobiles, half or so consumed, and tossed on verges, forest patch, parks, streets and eventually collected in garbage dumps, or end up in the lakes and oceans, where they kill aquatic animals, and break down into carcinogens.  They just happen to be the symptom that convinced me of the patient's terminal condition.

 

13 hours ago, Sensei said:

When I see politicians talking about yet another increase of taxes, I know they don't have idea what they are talking, they don't have idea what they are doing. And ecology, global warming, is just yet another pretext to increase taxes.. Instead of true fix..

Wouldn't that rather depend on what and who was being taxed and how the revenues were used? 

Most western governments don't have the legislative power to enact the draconian that would be necessary to make any real dent in the effects of climate change. (It's already changed and will keep on changing; the only meaningful choices now regard mitigation.) Investing public funds in public works - renewable energy generation, clean transport technology, green jobs and housing, local food productions, etc. - is about the only way governments can help their citizens survive the changing environment. Some of the European ones have been doing that - not enough! - but the muscular capitalist ones resist such initiatives with all their might.

... and then get stuck with humongous bills for repair to wrecked bridges, dams, towns and highways after each catastrophic weather event.

Edited July 13, 2021 by Peterkin
add detail

[Existential Dreams]

My emotions i can switch off and deal with things later , I have Borderline Personality Disorder  and i can do that and deal with it later as in helping  others who need help or at lest  try to  weather its awareness( i can do this online )  of what is going on  I make my voice matter  i speak for those who can't. ( online ) 

There are charities looking for volunteers( i cant do for my own  reasons ) and i make awareness they need Volunteers ( i can do this )