I sense much fear in you,
Fear is the path to the Dark Side;
Fear leads to Anger,
Anger leads to Hate,
Hate . . . leads to Suffering.
– Yoda
Is it possible to feel anger without fear? Does fear always come first?
Recently rewatched the original Star Wars trilogy and was struck by how many times this Fear/Anger theme was mentioned. Especially with regards to Luke having to let go of his internal fear and anger in order to confront the ‘outside’ things that he fears.
I can certainly recall feeling fear without any anger. But I’m hard pressed to think of a situation in which I felt anger without also feeling either afraid or threatened somehow.
So, is Yoda right? Or is it a chicken & egg scenario?
casa azahar 
As you know, I’m proud of never having seen any of the Star Wars films, but I’m given to understand that it’s full of such mysticist shite.
On the other hand…A point Yoda has. (Yeah – despite avoiding them, I’ve picked up the cultural references). I’m a biological reductionist. Ultimately we have to think of psychology as a collection of neurochemical processes. Anger is a state of mental arousal. During arousal states, various chemicals are released which cause physiological reactions which are concommitant with the mental perception of emotion. I would think it highly likely that there is a good deal of crossover between the anger chemicals and fear chemicals. Indeed, we can observe many similar external symptoms (increased heartrate, pupil dilation, trembling, etc. etc.)
Now, working it backwards…our emotional perceptions…our ‘feelings’…can only come from a combination of sensory inputs and dataflows within the brain (which combine direct and remembered sensation). Some of the sensory inputs are the same for fear and anger, and some of the dataflows that cause them must also be the same. So, yes, anger and fear to some extent feel the same.
What this does not say, of course, is what (I think) Yoda is implying, that anger is born out of fear (ie we only feel angry because we are afraid of something), or that by identifying and losing our fear we can remove our anger (and hence hate and suffering).
I’m not sure if that’s the kind of answer you’re expecting…
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Expecting nothing I wasn’t. 😉
Just got curious about how fear and anger are interrelated. My personal experience tells me that fear can exist on its own but anger always includes some element of fear.
Was just wondering what other people’s experiences were. I quite like the idea of letting go of fear (mysticist shite or not) as I think holding onto fear gets in the way of actually trying to deal with it. In other words, you can’t deal with your fears if you continue ‘living’ them. Or something like that.
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Thanks Edward. My thunder stolen you have.
The physiological components of fear and anger are essentially the same, and it’s the dataflows (memories and associations) that distinguish them. Sometimes these are appropriate, sometimes not. Sometimes the causes and targets are different. We may be angry with those that make us fearful, or angry with ourselves for being afraid.
When fear or anger are aroused, but can’t be discharged because it’s too dangerous, we displace it, or suffer serious stress if the triggering situation doesn’t go away.
Intolerable situations either lead to despair or to rage, depending on the context and the individual.
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“Anger always contains an element of fear.”
I’m not sure you can generalise from yourself to others. I’m sure yer man the philosopher will tell you that this is a deep conundrum concerning consciousness. On the other hand…we’re all biologically similar – so our emotions must have the same metamechanics (a sub-branch of metaphysics that I’ve just invented).
But I still don’t get the fear/anger connection from your post. Sure, the best way to get rid of a fear can be to face up to the problem. Myself, I’m a walking textbook of approach/avoidance pathology. But does the fear lead to anger? Or to depression?
(But see one of my quotes on the latest Bonoboworld on the relationship between anger and depression)
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(simulpost)
Indeed, there will always be individual differences within a species.
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>>Intolerable situations either lead to despair or to rage, depending on the context and the individual.
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For some reason my post was not printed properly. I’ll try again.
I said.
Agreed, with Noggin’s statement. My anger is always a response to fear. I can get very angry indeed, which I have learnt frightens people. Like az I can’t think when I’ve been angry for any other reason than because of fear for one reason or another.
But there are occasions when I can’t get angry and just feel fear and then fall into despair, which is very terrifying indeed.
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“depression is merely anger without the enthusiasm”
I did see that one on your blog, Edward, and meant to show it to Nog. It’s very good!
Sorry, I wasn’t trying to generalise my experience to include all others – which was why I specifically asked if others felt anything similar. Perhaps I hadn’t been clear enough.
To clarify … I’m not making any specific point about this, mostly musing and wondering what other people’s experiences have been.
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hi Fanny,
Yeah the use of chevrons (>) here to quote a post doesn’t work because we can use some xhtml stuff, which includes chevrons. But you can copy & paste, just be sure to use quotation marks instead of chevrons.
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“I can get very angry indeed, which I have learnt frightens people” (Fanny)
Join the club. Though on the occasions that this has happened I’m usually just as frightened by my anger as they are. And I find myself at a loss as to how to explain this. Mostly I just end up feeling stupid and embarrassed (with an extra dollop of self-loathing thrown in for good measure). 😕
Quite agree that when the fear/anger thing can find no expression and turns to despair it ends up extra scary.
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“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
Everyone knows I’m a Dune junkie. You knew I wouldn’t be able to resist. I’m so predictable. Some people get their mystical shite from Star Wars….I prefer Dune. 😉
I think fear and anger are conjoined twins. They feed off of each other.
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No offense taken at the generalisation, Az.
But…and this is where my ‘Mysticist Shite’ tag comes in ( 🙂 do you think I could get away with that on h2g2? Might it offend P-C?)…What you are saying is ‘I get angry when I’m afraid’. That’s a statement on a par with ‘I get angry when my blood sugar’s low’ (as my wife does) or (…when I have my period). It’s somewhat different to the Jedi (damn! more cultural baggage!) notion of an inevitable metaphysical connection between fear and anger.
Isn’t it?
And even more so:
Anger leads to Hate,
Hate . . . leads to Suffering.
These are possible situational consequences, not universal constants.
And don’t get me started on that Dalai Lama….
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Atchly, Hyp, I prefer to get my ‘mystical shite’ from Joseph Campbell , who was a serious influence on Lucas when he was making the first Star Wars trilogy (JC died before the second trilogy was made, which IMHO was why it was so crap. Well, that and that I think Lucas wrote the screenplays for the second trilogy – he’d previously had the good sense to hire decent screenwriters for the first one).
Cojoined twins, eh? So, chicken & egg?
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Hi again Edward,
As I said before, I wasn’t attempting to proclaim a univeral construct based on my own personal experiences – just threw that out to open some discussion.
Meanwhile, if I get angry or short-tempered when my blood sugar is low, is that not a physiological type of fear? Based on simple survival instincts? Am I not feeling somehow threatened because my body is not getting what it needs to survive?
Surely people are more prone to getting irritated when they are tired and hungry?
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I don’t get angry too often (although irritable as hell when my blood sugar is low), but when I do, it scares me silly. While some people I’ve known have told me that I’m in some sort of denial, the truth is that I experience a fairly consistent progression when it comes to “negative” emotions. It always starts with frustration, which may well be due, much of the time at least, to some perceived threat to my well-being or something.
Luckily I usually manage to pull myself back together from the frustrated point… because on those rare occasions where I get REALLY angry, it is scary as hell. It’s the kind of anger which involves a lot of tears and screaming, ends with a massive headache, and scares the crap out of whoever it is I’m angry with.
I think that on a purely physiological or even psychological level- without any need more mysticism- most anger and even frustration could wel be reduced to a basic fight-or-flight survival mechanism, even if what’s threatened is one’s happiness, self-esteem, or some other intangible idea as opposed to one’s physical safety.
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if I get angry or short-tempered when my blood sugar is low, is that not a physiological type of fear?
Fear of what, exactly? Fear of not getting lunch?
Yes, they are physiologically related in that they share mechanisms. Think of it another way:
We evolve separate mechanisms on the basis that they either have survival benefit or not. And note that they are separate. The odds are against a given gene yielding a whole package of useful mechanisms.
One such mechanism is adrenaline production, which releases sugar from glycogen, which is useful in a variety of survival-related situations:
– Chasing an antelope. (hunger)
– Running away from a leopard. (fear)
– Punching a sexual rival. (anger)
So all these situations are physiologically similar (with individual variations) in the one characteristic of adrenaline production. But are they emotionally equivalent?
Of course, instead of fleeing the leopard you may fight it. You’d be angry, I guess (as well as afraid). Are hunters angry with their prey? Are competitive runners angry with their fellow competitors?
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A threat to one’s sense of self is as real as any physical threat. Sometimes more so.
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Spot on, Psychocandy:
…most anger and even frustration could well be reduced to a basic fight-or-flight survival mechanism…
BUT: That’s not quite the same as saying they’re equivalent. Is it? Or even emotionally related. Similar mechanisms may be launched by entirely different types of stimulus. Does anyone get angry at the thought of falling off a high building? So some of the dataflows…and hence the emotions…will differ.
And, of course, things like the adrenaline mechanism are useful in other, non-fear/anger situations. Like sex.
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“Fear of what, exactly? Fear of not getting lunch?” (Edward)
😛
I think PC and Fanny have explained very well what I was attempting to express earlier. That there is some feeling of threat happening when we feel either irritated or angry.
There also seems to be a common feeling expressed that one’s anger also scares the person feeling it.
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“Does anyone get angry at the thought of falling off a high building?” (Edward)
That was my initial point! That I have personally felt fear with no anger at all. But I can’t remember ever feeling anger without some element of fear involved.
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Er…I’ve just spotted:
[Lucas had] previously had the good sense to hire decent screenwriters for the first one
Famous quote from Harrison Ford on the set of Star Wars:
Jesus, George! You may bne able to write this shit, but you sure as hell can’t say it!
Many have since pointed out that, as it later turned out, there was an extremely talented writer standing right next to him at the time.
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Yeah, Larry what’s-his-name … excellent screenplay/dialogue writer.
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…But I can’t remember ever feeling anger without some element of fear involved.
So are you stretching the definition of fear to cover such as:
– Strong desire not to be usurped by a sexual rival?
– Strong suspicion that Israel may not stop bombing Lebanese civilians?
– Strong antipathy towards the fucker who won’t make a space in the traffic queue to let you pull out?
Explain the fear, please. I may be in denial.
This is interesting. More later. I’m off to catch my bus. I’m angry in case I miss it.
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I don’t recall making any definite definition of what this fear might cover, Edward, let alone stretching it.
And I don’t think it really matters what one is fearful of, just that this seems to be an ‘anger trigger’.
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I’m kinda going with Yoda at this point. That most angry reactions we experience have some basis in fear.
But I’m also open to discussion and debate on the matter.
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I suppose, possibly stretching the normal meaning a bit, that we get angry when we perceive something as a threat to our well being, or an obstacle to our wishes.
Certainly the boundaries of different emotions are quite fluid and permeable, and cognitive processes have as much influence here as physiological ones. A cognitive process can even be the trigger for the physiological reaction.
How we respond also has a large learned element. This can be unlearned, but it ain’t easy.
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Let’s try another tack. Anger and Fear are not archetypal concepts. They are emotions experienced by individuals, and the only way we can get any data from them is by asking individuals. (There is a deep philosophical about whether the feeling reported by one person is identical to one felt by another…but that’s not strictly relevant).
So, let’s get empirical, baby. Let’s design an experiment. First you’d have to find a reliable way of inducing anger – but not, you hypothesis, fear – in a group of subjects. I’d suggest telling them that you’ll pay them £1000 to take part in an experiment, keep them sitting around in a waiting room for several hours, then tell them that the experiment’s cancelled. Then you administer a questonaire (you’d probably have to stump up a little cash at this point) getting them to rate their current perception of various emotions…Fear, Anger, plus a few controls such as Mirth, Nostalgia, Confusion, etc.
Now, I haven’t done the experiment…but I’d hazard a guess that they’d rate high for anger but not for fear. You could double check by asking ‘Are you sure you’re not afraid?’ I predict that the answer would be either ‘No’ or ‘Fuck off’.
Of course…this is an experimental artefact…but it would still disprove the hypothesis that anger is fundamentally grounded in fear. Wouldn’t it?
In fairness, you could design another another experimental treatment, say walking up to people and insulting them. In such cases you’d be likely to get a mixture of reactions from anger to fear and mixtures of the two.
BUT: The validity of Yoda’s words is still restricted to the specific rather than the general
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“keep them sitting around in a waiting room for several hours, then tell them that the experiment’s cancelled” Edward
I know I’d be getting very irritable. I’ve just been to my GP and found myself getting cross cos I had to wait half an hour. I tried to analyse the immediate reasons. I was restless and didn’t know what to do with the feelings in an enclosed space, I found myself panicking at my feelings of restlessness and powerlessness, So yes I was feeling fear at my own inner turmoil.
Fear can be really complex. I feel angry because a friend has not contacted me recently. I feel loss and abandonment. That’s scary.
I often get angry when I feel misunderstood. Again that makes me afraid cos I feel more alone.
Low blood sugar irritibility. Yes there is a bit of panic about, when the hell am I going to get to eat. But mostly it makes me feel frightened of the unpleasant feelings I’m experiencing in my body.
The more I think about it, the more I think anger always comes about through some kind of fear for ME. But I’m going to carry on thinking about it, because this is fascinating! 🙂
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But, but, but…what you’re saying is that your feelings of anger are in some situations contemporaneous (which says nothing about cause and effect) your feelings of fear.
Isn’t Yoda overgeneralising? And isn’t he making a causal link which may or not be appropriate?
That’s why I (provocatively) call it Mystical Shite. It’s anodyne baloney which implies that if only we can act like fearless Jedi Knights, we can conquer fear and hate and suffering (and end world hunger, etc. etc. etc.).
Plus there’s the undertone of American neo-fascism that says we are each the masters of our own emotions and hence destinies. Which is where Joseph Campbell was coming from. See also Ayn Rand.
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“I found myself panicking at my feelings of restlessness and powerlessness, So yes I was feeling fear at my own inner turmoil.” (Fanny)
The feeling of powerlessness can be terribly frightening. Though different people in the same situation would react differently, I’d probably be reacting like Fanny. Take away my freedom??? It may sound stupid but it kind of feels like that.
“It’s anodyne baloney which implies that if only we can act like fearless Jedi Knights, we can conquer fear and hate and suffering (and end world hunger, etc. etc. etc.).” (Edward)
No it isn’t. It’s talking about overcoming individual and personal emotional things that block us from being less afraid, more able to live our own lives as we wish.
How on earth can you compare Joseph Campbell to Ayn Rand? Really, I’m interested. Neo-fascism? Huh?
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Campbell…Rand..OK a bit unfair. But didn’t Campbell select those myths that were most in tune with The American Way? And isn’t that why Lucas and Heinlein are/were such huge fans?
But let’s try another tack…
What do we mean by an emotion? Surely it’s something we experience at a given moment?
I grant that you can look back at a time when you were angry and identify some of the processing, the root causes based partly on prior experience, which generated the anger. Like Fanny said…part of the processing that generates Frustration might include the sort of processing related to loneliness. (The blood sugar/ fear of not gettingf a meal example was a poor one, though. That’s pure physiology and the reasoning is a rationalisation. imho.)
So…let’s accept that the mental processing that leads to Anger van also include elements of processing that might lead, in other circumstances, to Fear.
But you didn’t feel fear, did you? You felt anger. Is emotion a sensation or a background process?
Fascinating discussion . I hope I’m not being too masculine and adverserial, though. I like to think of myself as more Contrarian.
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Edward you’re terribly masculine darling 😉
Emotion is a feeling. I often think the Descartes quote, ‘I think therefore I am’, should be ‘I feel therefore I am’ when I’m in one of my ‘moods’.
Seriously I do feel there is a cause and effect thing going on. Maybe because I’ve done a lot of therapy in the past, I’ve got used to trying to examine a chain of events going on in my mind. And I can only speak for myself. I’m certainly not saying that my experience neccessarily applies to anyone else.
The Yoda quote I think is deliberately a little ironically simplistic, isn’t it?. Because fear doesn’t always lead to anger. And anger certainly always lead to hate etc. But it’s certainly a good starting point for a discussion!!
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well, that had kinda been the idea, Fanny…I mean, I even put up a silly Yoda pic and everything (sheesh!).
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Yes I was reiterating that to Edward. And a dam good idea it was too.
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Meanwhile, what’s with “I’m proud of never having seen any of the Star Wars films”
Why is that something to be proud of, Edward? 😕
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Yeah…I do regard masculinity as a negative quality…but that’s my own self-loathing issues.
Still badgering on the cause and effect…
I’m sure that it’s sometimes true for some people. And, indeed, it may be useful for some people to take a look inside and see if they can pin down the root cause of their anger.
But it does not entitle us to generalise. If someone says they’re angry, they’re angry. If we ask them if they’re scared and they reply ‘No’…then we have no objective grounds on which to doubt them.. Yoda should have added all sorts of caveats and exclusion…but that then less profound sound would. And as a therapist he’d be dangerous. Hardly non-directive, is he?
As for my (doubtless) misplaced pride…I refer you to my h2g2 PS. I regard it as quite an achievement. But note that I also have a guilty secret…
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I don’t have a lot of time for Mystical Shite, myself.
Fear does not necessarily lead to anger. Take the anger I’m stockpiling at the moment, about my job. There’s no fear, just anger – righteous anger, at that. Maybe it’s best to call it wrath, and a desire for justice.
Mind you, lower forms of anger – the basic teenage dummy-spit, for instance – might have something to do with fear of some sort. Irrational fear, possibly.
(Does this make sense? I’m not fully awake yet.)
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On the other hand…I can see where Az and Fanny are coming from (btw…is that a USanian Fanny or a UKanian one? There’s a considerable difference. About three inches. 😉 )
If we think about the origins of any emotion, they’re by-products of the mental processing that leads to goal-seeking and outcome-avoiding behaviours. As Psychocandy rightly said, their part of the same Fight-Flight complex. Thus, given a set of data abou a given situation, we have to decide at some point whether to get angry or frightened. The outcome is (possibly? more or less?) a binary choice: It’s hard to feel angry and frightened simultaneously. Some situations will temd to go one way or the other (Fear of falling off a building; Anger at Israel). Others could go either way. I guess it’s these others you’re talking about.
It thus follows that some anger can be removed by changing the processing. The kind of thing they (I man we – including me) do in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.
But I still think that Yoda’s being over-presecriptive…and that’s the problem with Mysticist Shite in general. Say a patient is undergoing therapy. Can we look at any anger and insist that it’s derived from anger? If the patient insists that they’re simply angry…well maybe they’re right. Who’s to say?
Also…are anger or fear necesarily bad things? After all, they must have been selected for on the basis of their survival value. It’s quite useful for the survival of one’s genes to be angry at a leopard attacking your child. It’s also quite sensible to run away if it’s likely to attack you.
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Ivan:
Irrational fear, possibly.
Indeed. Humans are flawed procesors.
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(Aside)
Fanny is just a girls’ name, Edward 😉 Otherwise I’m sure the profanity filter on h2g2 would have censored it!!
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I found myself feeling immensly angry today when some really dumb and insensitive person kept bombarding me with a load of stupid questions. In the end I got up and walked away, pleading the excuse I needed a bit of air. Really it was to avoid socking her one in the gob….Actually my tolerance levels are a bit low at the moment, a bit like low blood sugar stuff feelings, for all sorts of other reasons.
I know I did the right thing obviously. But once alone I reflected on the feelings. I felt ‘invaded’ by her and the stupid questions that she was asking over and over. Once I got out of the situation I felt much better. And once I got home I put the music on loud and ranted and shouted.
But once again I think fear was behind it all. The feeling of invasion, the feeling of powerlessness, the chaotic maelstrom it produced inside me…….
Sorry to be boring, but it just keeps on coming back to fear.
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I agree with Ivan (and I think Edward but I can never get my head around the biological stuff) –
while I always get angry when I’m scared or fearful, I don’t need to fear something to be angry
I can think of a dozen examples where I am angry without being afraid and I think Ivan used exactly the right word – wrath. Things can anger me because they trespass against me or those which I care about without directly threatening me.
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” trespass against me….without directly threatening me.”
So that can anger you without threatening you. So what are you getting angry about then?
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That someone or something has violated some space (physcial, mental or whatever) when they shouldn’t have, but without threatening me and invoking fear. It’d be a situation where I felt powerful and therefore no need to be scared or threatened, just angry that someone/thing is somewhere or doing something it shouldn’t be.
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Frankly, anyone violating my physical, mental, emotional space is a threat.
Maybe not a huge threat, depending on the circumstances. But a threat, nevertheless.
When I go for the wrath thing, and I have done so upon occasion, it’s always because something or someone has threatened either myself, someone I care about, or even a personal belief of mine.
Ivan, are you able to tell me that these cretins you work with have never threatened you or your sense of well-being?
Edward, I have not said anywhere that I thought either anger or fear were bad things, I simply said that – in my experience – I have never experienced anger without some element of fear happening.
Otherwise – why would I be angry? On the behalf of another person perhaps? Yeah, sure, that happens. But I am also feeling the fear and helplessness they are going through – which then makes me angry!
Truly anger and fear share various physiological traits. And it is not my point that I am generalizing for everyone – just that in my experience I have never felt anger without some element of fear attached to it.
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“Anger and Fear are not archetypal concepts. They are emotions experienced by individuals, and the only way we can get any data from them is by asking individuals. (There is a deep philosophical about whether the feeling reported by one person is identical to one felt by another…but that’s not strictly relevant).”
Firstly, Anger and Fear prbably are archetypical, because they are two of the universally recognised facial expressions.
The philosophical point has some relevance, given that the boundaries between emotions are to some degree permeable. People may at least be labelling them differently in some circumstances.
What do we mean by threaten?
For example, if a subordinate animal in a group “threatens” a dominant animal, the usual result is that the dominant animal responds aggressively (anger), and the subordinate animal runs away (fear). Is the dominant animal afraid? If the contest is equal both animals will display both aggression and avoidance (anger and fear).
Of course, the human version is more complicated, has more learned elements, and can be triggered by less immediate and more abstract concerns (like the cohesion of the group).
Can we be threatened without feeling fear in a way that links threat to anger?
Either way, sure I am not. Complicated it is.
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Yes I agree it is complicated. I was thinking today about the feeling of wanting vengeance. I can feel this if someone has hurt me, particularly if I feel it is a really deliberate and inexcusable hurt, like one can feel in a relatiuonship for example. I know the saying goes, ‘revenge is a dish best served cold’. But I’m far too impatient for that usually.
The feeling of wanting vengeance can obssess one for a long time, even years. Is this still the same as anger after a period of time? Or maybe it’s the ‘hate’ that Yoda says comes from anger?
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I reckon anger can be a rather pure and immediate understandable reaction … stuff like vengeance or spite requires planning.
I always reckon it’s best never to harbour a grudge. To quote one of my favourite authors, Robertson Davies:
“Never harbour grudges; they sour your stomach and do no harm to anyone else.”
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well that might be all very well for him, but some of us are the mercy of our passionate primitive natures. 😉 I actually always think of vengeance as an immediate feeling not requiring any planning. I might be better at it, if I used my brain ocassionally.
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Az, the cretins have indeed threatened my sense of well-being – but that has nothing to do with fear. Scorn, yes, but not fear. You see, I know I’m better than them. (And modest, too.)
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Well there you go … anything that threatens my sense of well being is always accompanied by some element of fear as well. Of course, I hasten to add that I am just speaking for myself (before Edward beats me up again 😉 ).
It may not be a big fearful feeling. In the case you describe, Ivan, feeling totally justified in your scorn and anger, a similar situation for me would probably still have the eensiest sense of fear attached to it, but it would still be there. Otherwise, why would I feel threatened? Or get angry?
To use Nog’s example of the dominant animal in a group. I have certainly at times perceived that someone was trying to threaten me, but knowing I was ‘bigger and stronger’ I simply dealt with them without actually feeling threatened. Just kind of ‘put them in their place’ and although I was annoyed there was no real anger going on.
*waves to Fanny*
I said I reckoned that it’s best never to harbour a grudge – didn’t say I never do this myself. 😉
Though when it comes to this sort of thing I much prefer the ‘don’t get mad, get even’ approach. It can be quite deliciously satisfying to give an adversary just enough rope to hang themselves with, rather than having to actually do the deed yourself.
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There’s also the lovely passive-aggressive approach, which allows you to mess someone up without their realizing you’ve done it. 😀
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That would never work for me, PC – I always want them to know . . . where’s the fun or satisfaction otherwise? 😉
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I’ve actually got a good example of anger without fear.
My former landlord has been witholding my security deposit from last year. We left on less than amicable terms and I left a letter to the new tenants describing how bad the house was and giving evidence. Landlord tried to keep my deposit as a bit of revenge, despite paying everyone else theirs back.
I got some legal advice and made sure he didn’t have a legal leg to stand on. Then I went to confront him and get my deposit back, or a letter stating why I wasn’t getting it back. When I went around there I was *furious* but I didn’t have the tiniest bit of fear because I knew that any court in the land would order him to return my deposit. I knew that money was mine by right and that I would get it one way or another, it just might take a little longer.
It truly was wrath, this irksome, petty little man was witholding *my* money when he had no grounds to do so and I wanted it back. No fear at all
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Your ex-landlord sounds like my hopefully-soon-to-be-ex-boss. The expression ‘irksome, petty little man’ made it obvious to me.
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Hmm. I was caught up in a friend’s domestic the other day. It got as far as my having to think about what might be the best places to hit. No fear – if I got hit, I got hit. No anger – just tedious practicality. But definitely some adrenaline in the mix.
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