April 2
Anger is a brief madness: it is not master of itself, forgets decency, knows no bond, is deaf to reason and counsel.
On Anger I,1
Listening mode
Anger is a brief madness: it is not master of itself, forgets decency, knows no bond, is deaf to reason and counsel.
In anger you are rarely at a loss for words. Sentences you would otherwise search for at length are suddenly ready to hand, sharp and complete. Every objection from the other person seems only to confirm what you already knew. It feels less like confusion than like an unaccustomed clarity.
That is exactly why it is so hard to recognise. An intoxication that felt like a daze you would distrust. This one feels as if you were finally seeing clearly. You do listen, but only to find your next argument.
When it is over, you are left in an uncomfortable position. Often the cause was not imagined. Something really was unjust, and your anger noticed it faster than your patience did. Only you can no longer say its sentences the way you said them. They belonged to a certainty that now seems foreign to you, although it was yours.
If you raise the injustice again tomorrow, you will speak more slowly. Whether it will still be heard as clearly then, you don't know.
