Seneca, Session 2, Part 1: The First Jolt Need Not Set Our Way
In their victim mindset, they could not gain clarity about other choices they could make to put their energy to better use.
There is much to consider in Book 2 of Seneca’s “On Anger.” Part 2 of this overview will appear on Sunday, and part 3, which contains a powerful but straightforward exercise designed to help us let go of the past, will be published on Tuesday.
Two thousand years after Seneca, a glance at today’s newspapers reminds us that human nature hasn’t changed. Recently, I read of a NYC subway rider who was assaulted after a bumped knee set off an altercation. That time the brawl didn't result in any serious injuries, but we're aware of the many forms of road rage and its terrible consequences.
The experience of anger may be so intense that we feel we are not responsible for it. Are we responsible for the anger we experience? Seneca took up that question: “The question is whether anger follows directly upon that very appearance, launching it’s attack without the mind’s collaboration, or whether it’s stirred with the mind’s assent.”
Seneca emphasized the study of anger is not merely an academic activity. If anger simply emerges against our will, there would be no point in trying to comprehend it:
“What’s the point of this inquiry?” you ask. The point is to know what anger is; for if it comes into being against our will, it will never yield to reason—indeed, any movements that occur independent of our will cannot be overcome or avoided, like shivering when we’re sprinkled with cold water, or revulsion at touching certain things, or the way our hair stands on end at bad news, or the blush that spreads when we hear obscene words, or the dizziness that comes over us when we look down from a cliff. Because none of these responses is in our power, no form of reason can argue against their occurring.
He saw that we have power over anger. His insight doesn't give us an easy way out:
We hold that anger ventures nothing on its own but acts only with the mind’s approval: for (a) having the impression that one has been done a wrong, (b) desiring to take vengeance for it, and then (c) combining both in the judgment that one ought not to have been harmed and that one ought to be avenged—none of this is proper to a mere impulse set in motion independent of our will.
Anger, Seneca explained, is “a fault of the mind” and is “subject to our will.” He writes of the initial “mental jolt” that sets us off:
Anger, by contrast, is put to flight by instruction because it’s a fault of the mind subject to our will. It’s not among the things that happen to us just because of our lot as humans, and happen, accordingly, even to the very wise; and among these things must be included the initial mental jolt that stirs us when we believe we’ve been wronged.
In Seneca’s experience, even a song could be the mental jolt that sets off anger. Anger is nothing new. If we are looking to be angry, we will find something to be angry about.
The Master and Margarita, a classic Russian novel, commences with a scene of a soft drink seller being angry when a customer asks for seltzer, a drink she doesn't carry. Seneca would smile, again affirming that anything can set us off.
“I was grocery shopping, and someone banged my foot with their shopping cart,” said a participant in a workshop I conducted at a large government organization. “They made me mad!”
I had been leading the group to see how our experience of life is generated from the inside out. It only seems that circumstances, events, and other people create our experience of life. It is really our interpretation of these things that creates our experience.
Defensive and indignant, the participant went on to tell how he didn’t receive a proper apology from the person who banged his foot. “Everyone in this room knows what I’m talking about,” he said, looking for support. Yet, the fact that he brought up this incident told me that part of his mind was looking for a better way.
I had previously worked with senior leadership in this organization. The project manager wanted me to work with the administrative assistants because she thought they had been unresponsive to previous development training. She eagerly sought an intervention to enhance their performance.
Dialogue in the group continued with stories and questions. As I better understood the man’s mindset, I responded, “I don’t get upset in that situation because I don’t take the bang personally.”
On the man’s face, I could see his defense of his position come to a full stop. He saw that he had taken the incident personally; he had never considered another interpretation.
That is precisely Seneca’s point. Inquiry matters. Before inquiry, there is only suffering as life delivers its bangs.