Should we be angry?
(Read the fear of death first)
Ever since the dawn of human, we have been seeking immortality. Although immortality could be something painful to experience, most people alive still want to live longer than their natural lifespan. Last time we proved that fear might not be a rational feeling towards death, but anger towards mortality or not having enough time to live seems perfectly justifiable as we live in such a beautiful world. However, very much like fear, in order for anger to be rational, there are some conditions must be met. Through the following analysis, it is not hard to see that anger towards death and many other things are irrational and uncalled for.
The first prerequisite for anger to make sense is that the object of anger must be something of free-will or intelligent. Being angry at a soulless being is not only pointless, but also ridiculous in a way. I remember watching a compilation of drunk people arguing with objects like doors, cars, and even beer bottles, and the fact that these angers are uncalled for creates comedy effect. Sometimes, people get mad at their pets and even their computers if intentionally broke something or malfunction at a crucial time. In these cases, anger is also not rational because we personify our pets and computers as if they did bad things intentionally just to enrage us.
The second prerequisite for anger is that the object of anger must mistreated or wronged the subject in some way. The same example holds in this case that I wouldn’t be angry at someone who offer me an ice-cream cone because even though he did so purposefully, he did not mistreat me. Another concept I want to emphasize again is that the absence of good is not bad, and it also wrong to be angry at someone who previously offered you ice-cream cone from time to time and stopped doing so because he does not own you ice-creams. Instead of being angry at him not giving you any more ice-cream cone, the proper / healthy / rational feeling is being grateful for the free ice-cream cone you got from him.
Now let’s look at the anger towards mortality.
As previously discussed, it only make sense to be angry at the fact that people will not be living as long as they want if they believe there is an intellectual and free-will being who will decide or has decided your lifespan, otherwise, without an object of anger, holding fists against the universe and its laws is empty and pointless. Therefore, for atheists, physicalists, and communists who believe the world is purely material and not governed by a supernatural being, anger is uncalled for. For people who do believe that there is a overruling being that decided their lifespan and believe that believe that by doing so the being mistreats them, it seems both prerequisites are met and their anger may actually be rational.
However, despite that most believers should not or dear not to be angry at their God(of any form), has God, if He does exist, wronged us by not giving us enough time to enjoy the world? When we feel these negative feelings about our departure, fear, sorrow, anger, pity, regretful, and etc. and we want to experience more of the colorful world we live in, we look around to find that we are already extreme lucky to exist as a human, as most of the atoms, molecules, and materials never develop the ability to see the flowers we see, to eat ice-creams, to listen to music, to acquire knowledge, to watch sunsets, and to fall in love. Just like we shouldn’t blame or be angry at the man for stop giving us any more ice-creams, we shouldn’t blame God for stop giving us more time to live. Instead, we should be grateful of the time already granted to us and treasure it by making good use of it.
When I have these irrational negative feelings towards death, I found a piece of writing by Kurt Vonnegut has a relieving effect, and I hope it does the same for you.
God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, “Sit up!”
“See all I’ve made,” said God, “the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars.”
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around.
Lucky me, lucky mud. I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going, God. Nobody but you could have done it, God! I certainly couldn’t have.
I feel very unimportant compared to You.
The only way I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn’t even get to sit up and look around.
I got so much, and most mud got so little.
Thank you for the honor!
Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.
What memories for mud to have!
What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!
I loved everything I saw!
Sources:
Vonnegut, Kurt, Cat’s Cradle, 新华出版社, 2014
Shelly Kagan. Yale Open lecture on Philosophy of Death.
