In a world clamoring with opinions and awash in differences, Mahatma Gandhi’s profound statement, “Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding,” resonates with enduring truth. These potent words highlight the insidious barriers that stand between us and genuine comprehension. When rage boils over and tolerance sours, our ability to perceive things for what they truly are becomes clouded. Like storm-tossed waves obscuring the ocean’s depths, heated emotions and closed minds distort realities, making it a daunting task to discern genuine understanding from the swirling vortex of biases and preconceived notions. This insightful quote, therefore, serves as a stark reminder that the path to true knowledge demands navigating the treacherous waters of anger and intolerance, paving the way for calmer seas of open-mindedness and critical thinking. Only then can we hope to emerge with a clear and accurate picture of the world around us.
Tag: Human Values – lessons from the lives and teachings of great leaders, reformers and administrators; Contributions of moral thinkers and philosophers from India and world.
Decoding the Question:
- In the Introduction, try to explain the context (in brief).
- In Body,
- Explain how anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding.
- Discuss the effects of anger and intolerance in personal life.
- Discuss the ways to control anger and intolerance.
- In Conclusion, try to mention a quote or teachings of religious or other leaders.
Answer:
The quote above speaks to the importance of understanding in our relationships, including the relationship we have with ourselves and the world around us. Understanding anger and intolerance mean that we can channel them into constructive, not destructive, actions. It also means that we can more effectively empathize with people who are angry or intolerant and help them find constructive solutions instead of destructive ones. Learning to understand others may take time and effort, but it can certainly pay off in the long run.
Anger: It is an emotional outburst, a person experiences when they feel attacked, threatened or unfairly treated. It affects both the angry person as well as all those who are touched by that person’s anger.
Types of Anger:
- Assertive: In an assertive state, you feel confident about yourself and your abilities. You can listen to the needs of others and act on them appropriately.
- Behavioral:The most common form of anger is the behavioral type. This type involves actions that are destructive to others, such as verbal and physical abuse.
- Chronic:A chronic level of anger can be caused by many different factors. Sometimes it may be the result of an external event or a traumatic experience, but other times it may have nothing to do with anything specific.
- Judgmental:This type of anger is when a person becomes angry because another person did something that they disapprove of, or doesn’t do something the way they would have done it themselves.
- Overwhelmed:When you’re feeling overwhelmed, it can feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders and there’s no way to relieve yourself from it. You may have trouble sleeping or concentrating, and that can lead to other problems.
- Passive:The passive type of anger is often the least seen and least experienced type of anger. This type is characterized by a person who does not lash out at their target, but rather just holds it all inside.
- Self-Abusive:Self-harm is a form of self-abusive behaviour, often used as a coping mechanism for trauma. It can also be used to release built-up anger, or as an attempt to punish oneself.
Intolerance: It is a feeling that develops through a process of prejudice. It is an unwillingness to accept the views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from one’s own, is toxic when combined with anger.
Correct Understanding: It is the process where one is able to think about a persons’ views, opinions, and understanding regarding any subject matter. To understand others’ views and opinions, one needs to be tolerant and calm. Being angry and intolerant will lead to a situation which is conflicting, disturbing and may even lead to violence. However, it is more often seen that intolerant people are often being used by people for their advantage to achieve political goals.
Effects of Anger in persons life:
- It often leads to bias and clouds moral judgement. For example, under provocation people resort to violence and fail to understand the repercussions their actions may cause.
- It leads to an influenced, non-objective and emotional decision, which is devoid of well thought outcomes and understanding of the ends of such decisions. Example, in anger, mobs may lynch an innocent person without knowing or verifying his crime.
- Anger will make a person lose calm and force him/her to make hasty decisions which may not be correct.
Effects of Intolerance in persons life:
- An intolerant person remains ignorant to diverse opinions and beliefs and thus acts according to narrow ideals. Example, politicians with fanatic religious backgrounds may be ignorant towards issues like LGBT rights.
- Prevents correct understanding: Intolerance in a society prevents correct understanding as people only see one side of the coin. For example, not all terrorists or criminals can have similar religious inclinations as they may be branded by some individuals leading to development of intolerance against them and may lead to violence.
- Intolerance makes a person blind and deaf to other opinions and narrows down a person’s thinking and judgement marred by biased views.
Ways to control anger and intolerance:
- Encouraging the notion of sarva dharma sambhava by making people of diverse cultures to interact with each other.
- Practicing and propagating Yoga and meditation techniques to manage anger is a must for one to control one’s own mind.
- Accept other views and thoughts to develop as a rational human being. Education and awareness about other’s rights plays an important role in this.
- Moreover, speedy Justice delivery, persuasion by leaders, celebrities and well-known personalities, check on social media and provocative sites/platforms, efforts of the government, public awareness, value based education, etc.
Correct or right understanding is one of the noble eightfold paths of Buddha’s teaching. It is to cultivate those qualities of mind which will allow one to have a complete and realistic apprehension of things, or as the Buddha put it, ‘a knowledge and vision of things as they really are’.
Some of the attitudes that can help the development of Right Understanding include; trying to get a direct experience of something rather than relying on the opinions of others, not having preconceived ideas, not jumping to conclusions, being open to different explanations, taking time to draw conclusions, etc.
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