Ruminating on Honor, Dignity, Anger, and Process Addiction

I don't agree with this essay, "Sovereignty at Stake" or particularly think it has all the facts straight. Nonetheless, I think the last paragraph clearly states one side of the argument on immigration: conservatives value respect and honor for their perception of America and the American people. They care much less about the dignity of asylum seekers and even the dignity of human beings. As they like to spout: "America First".

I don't really know what to think about this whole issue. It feels steeped in "honor culture" that lashes out at being disrespected, whereas I'm apparently from "dignity culture". I try to value the humanity in each person, though they may poke at me and get on my nerves. At the worst, if they get at me enough, I'll try to get away or seek an uncomfortable but tolerable peace.

If anything, I will get angry about someone tearing down another person's dignity, but not so much mine. Maybe I'll get angry about someone tearing down the dignity of reason, logic, facts, and such. I feel that their ignoring reality disrespects both existence and me.

After the Mercy Hospital shooting last night, the violence in society, and the general partisanship these days, I want to understand how honor culture and dignity culture work. I think my curiosity comes from experiencing some amount of social rejection in my life. How have I avoided lashing out in severe violence when going through such things (admittedly, I've cut down trees and yelled in woods when angry). Maybe by understanding myself and others, this knowledge and understanding can benefit the world.

But my latest ruminating research has led me to the concepts of "honor" and "dignity". It's also interesting how a couple sociologists have seemed to add a third prong: "victimhood culture" to explain how they see "identity politics" (which I see dignity people trying to address through empathy and cohesion while honor folks seem to ridicule and attack it for being disrespectful & having unfair advantage).

I'm just ruminating here, getting some thoughts out. This afternoon after drafting this entry, I stumbled about the Internet and now have gotten hooked on the concept of "anger addiction". I'm wondering if I can delve deeper into "anger addiction" to reach a satisfying argument that people really want harmony and peace, not the exhiliration and euphoria/dysphoria that anger creates. At the very least, I'd like to make an argument that I believe which states that the high from anger just costs way too much, making it an unworthy state to pursue.

I’d love to hear other people’s perspectives. Do you have a good argument with evidence of how anger creates a subjectively negative experience, so negative that it doesn't make the high anger worth it?



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