Feeling outraged feels more powerful than feeling afraid.
Provocateurs have always been able to capture attention and whip up emotional reactions. We are emotional creatures, governed by our base instinctive survival reactions. Hyper-alertness for any potential danger is hardwired into us at the genetic level. We don’t even have to be the ones to sense the danger directly. Being told there is a danger is all our fight or flight impulses need to spool up.
Being able to distinguish between a perceived danger and a genuine danger is an important evolutionary component. Without exploration, expansion, discovery, and learning there can be no progress. Learning there were less dangerous ways to interact with fire enabled us to progress beyond fleeing from its presence to harnessing it as a tool for the betterment of our lives.
Caution remains but the ability to move through and beyond the initial instinctive ‘flee from danger’ reflex is a fundamental ingredient in how we have arrived at the technological quality of life we currently enjoy as a species.
A trait we share globally as a species is that we would rather feel angry than afraid. Even though the anger may be generated entirely by the fear, an adrenaline rush designed to give us a burst of strength and speed to escape the danger confronting…