Shouldn’t we get angry at injustice? Don’t some things deserve our rage? Or will rage just beget more rage? These are some of the questions we're thinking about on this week's show, "Righteous Rage."

如今，不公正无处不在——从独裁者压迫公民，到企业破坏环境，再到新纳粹主义者大肆宣扬种族主义——愤怒是很有道理的。

但从塞内加到桑提迪瓦到玛莎·努斯鲍姆等哲学家都认为，愤怒总是危险的、不必要的。当然，有些愤怒的表达是危险的:我们可能会同意，出于报复而伤害别人或在公共场合发脾气是错误的。

And some anger is uncalled for: there are people who get angry when they lose to their supposed social inferiors, or when someone tells them things they don’t want to hear. But why paint all anger with the same brush?

One argument against anger points to its consequences. The Stoic philosopherSenecawrote that “no plague has cost the human race more dear” and warns of “slaughterings and poisonings” to “torches applied to roofs” to “whole nations condemned to death in one common ruin.”

但这些后果都不是不可避免的:你不必每次生气都要杀人。你可以通过公开反对不公正来引导你的情绪来解决问题，或者通过加入一个积极的运动来创造积极的改变。

Some authors have argued that activists should not be angry, but should seek to replace anger with other emotions, like love. Martha Nussbaum claims that anger is counterproductive to activist goals: it can scare away allies, or anger the powerful.

But as Amia Srinivasanpoints out, anger is often “counterproductive—on those occasions when it is—because powerful people have made it so.” Why should the onus for change fall on angry activists, rather than on the world that allows no room to them?

And shouldn’t those of us who claim to be allies work on accepting the emotions of marginalized people, even when it feels difficult or awkward? Complaining that a criticism is too angry is often just a convenient way to dismiss it without listening.

Besides, there is no need to replace anger with love, since anger isn’t antithetical to love in the first place. It’s possible to be angry at someone you love—perhaps even because loving them has raised your moral expectations of them.

Anger can also be a way of expressing love for the victim of harm, whether that victim is another person or yourself. Objecting to unfair treatment is a way of expressing self-respect when you've repeatedly been told that you are unworthy because of your skin color, disability status, class, or race.

这并不是说愤怒总是好的。当愤怒导致暴力时，当愤怒基于一种不合理的权利意识时，或当愤怒针对那些没有做任何值得愤怒的事情的人时，我们应该反对。将好的例子和坏的例子分开需要一些工作。

I’m excited to talk to this week’s guest, Myisha Cherry from UC Riverside. She’s the author ofRighteous Rage: Why Anger is Essential to Anti-Racist Struggle, and I expect she’ll have a lot of insight about why certain kinds of anger are valuable.

Photo byClay BanksonUnsplash