From “Worth Fighting For: Finding Courage and Compassion When Cruelty Is Trending” by John Pavlovitz
The Greek philosopher Aristotle offers a different way of thinking about the redemptive possibilities of our outrage that merits considering: “Anyone can get angry – that is easy…But to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for everyone, nor is it easy.” Using these various qualifiers to measure our expression of anger can be game changers whether you’re a person of faith or not: the right person – right extent – right time – right motive – right way. So, the object of our anger, the level of our anger, the timing of our anger, the purpose of our anger, and the manner of our anger all matter. These who, how much, when, why, how questions can give us a really useful filter for assessing the appropriate nature of our outrage, and more importantly, a productive expression of it.