Seneca Moral essays
Seneca: We are angry, either with those who can, or with…
We are angry, either with those who can, or with those who cannot do us an injury. To the latter class belong some inanimate things, such as a book, which we often throw away when it is written in letters too small for us to read, or tear up when it is full of mistakes, or clothes which we destroy because we do not like them.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of Seneca’s moral essays. The reading beside it is ours.
We sometimes get angry at things that cannot possibly deserve it: the frozen laptop, the traffic light, the broken zipper, the document with bad formatting. We slam, throw, curse, or tear something up as if the object had chosen to inconvenience us. This reveals that the anger was already looking for an outlet. The same is true when we target people who have little power to defend themselves, such as customer-service workers or family members after a stressful day. Before you react, ask: can this thing or person intend harm? If not, anger is especially pointless. If they can, ask whether the harm was deliberate and what response would actually help. Today, when frustration rises over an object or a minor obstacle, do one deliberately gentle action instead: set it down, restart it, ask for help, or walk away. Refuse to make inconvenience an excuse for violence.
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