Martha Nussbaum Beyond Anger Analysis

Happiness, excitement and anger are all types of emotions people feel on a daily basis, but have you ever felt one more than the other? According to Martha C Nussbaum’s “Beyond Anger”, she claims that anger is the emotion that has come to saturate our politics and culture, but also believes that the idea of philosophy can take us out of this dark vortex. Anger is an emotion we as humans must feel, but it should not stop there. Anger is in fact an emotion that is expressed universally, and has a great power in controlling our future decision-making prior to feeling that specific anger. This emotion must not go overlooked. People need to acknowledge anger in terms of not only what made them feel that way, but most importantly how they will react
It is as if her claim is to subliminally inform the reader that by changing how one thinks about anger, one can obtain more clarity in terms of changing their ways in how they react to that same anger. One may question how to overcome anger, but Nussbaum presents a solution which involves a whole lot of looking in the mirror. She quotes, “the struggle against anger often requires lonely self-examination” (Nussbaum, 2016). This idea involves one to understand themselves. Her writing suggests that self-analysis is important in knowing how to rationally deal with anger. The truth is, everyone is going to experience this particular emotion more than once in their lifetimes, therefore, it is wise to know how to react to this anger. As mentioned previously, it is common for one to want to retaliate when someone has done wrong to them. Nussbaum claims that in order for one to turn to the future and focus on doing things that are of good sense and are helpful, one must do it in a spirit that is deterrent rather than retaliatory (Nussbaum, 2016). However, one might ponder over retaliation in terms of being positive. According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, the definition of retaliatory reverts back to revenge, vengefulness and harmful actions, but what if people viewed the idea of retaliation differently. As ironic as the phrase may sound, what if “killing people with kindness” was an ideal form of retaliation when feeling angry towards someone? In other terms, Nussbaum’s article urges the reader to turn the other cheek once angered, yet it does not hurt to react differently, but positively and even hopeful. Although this concept may sound unrealistic, it sure proposes another way of viewing anger in regards to its