The use of "Darkside" emotions

The forest fire metaphor is precisely the sort of naturalistic argument for destruction that is, in my opinion, a fundamentally misunderstood event. In our limited capacity, we perceive moments where things are destroyed as bad because the interrupt our lives in some way. Whereas, for the biosphere, a Forest Fire is more akin to a sneeze or a really good defecation. Naturally existing mechanisms for the reconfiguration of matter exist from forest fires to black holes, usually clearing out dead matter to create nutrients for new matter.

The ultimate end of these" destructive" events is creation. They are a means for order and harmony to proceed with minimal interruption. So do we call them acts of creation or destruction?

I was a victim of bullying across multiple school districts and multiple states. My anger and hatred were strong, but looking back they did not help me. Had I given in to them, I'd probably have gone to prison. What kept me alive wasn't anger, but sheer force of Will - an often overlooked emotion. By its very nature, Will is about as neutral as emotions get. Yet, when you feel it strongly and focus it, there's often few things you cannot accomplish.

I do not agree that Love can be misused. Many of the examples given are not Love, and never were. Love is a potent emotion, but it is easily confused with infatuation, lust, and obsession. Real Love isn't about attachment, and it starts with self-love. Eros is a breeding instinct. Agape is the compassionate love for all living things which springs forth as a natural extension of self-love, and the recognition of ourselves in every other living being. Romantic love is the recognition of a counterpoint in another which creates an existential desire to join lives, and is yet another extension of self-love.

Stalkers, rapists, and abusers of every shade don't know Love, they're not capable of it. They don't love themselves, in fact most probably hate themselves. They're motivated by deeply-seated fears and anger which cause them to become possessive, often caused by repressed traumas. Love doesn't deserve to have its name tarnished because we think Love is the root of evils that can easily be identified with a Fear or Anger related to attachment issues.

Nai_Elyob wrote:
When we talk about Fear, we're not talking about the sense of caution that aids our survival. We're talking about real, damaging fears that bring harm, particularly any Fear associated with attachment.

When we talk about Anger, we're not talking about righteous indignation. We're talking about blind wrath which clouds judgment and often causes people to lash out at one another.

The simple fact that you had to clarify What "sort of fear and anger" you were referring to invalidates your entire argument. If fear or anger can be useful in any capacity then they are valid emotional responses and not something to be denied. What you would deem as "positive" emotions fall into this same trap. In fact no emotion is relegated to just one side of a spectrum. Each one is the spectrum itself.

I don't think there is such a thing as a "Dark side emotion," and I'll explain why. Every emotion, even love, can cause problems in life, if you react poorly to it. You can love someone so much, that it causes you to hurt them. You can become a stifling presence in their life, becoming overprotective or territorial. If you lose something you love too much, it can hurt you, cause anger, leading to lashing out. You could argue that it's anger and fear causing the behavior, but wasn't it too much love that led to it?

Anger can be justifiable. I know I've had cause to be angry. A lot of the time it takes over me, though, and I lash out at whatever's in front of me, whether it's the cause of my anger or not.

We all have emotions. We all have to deal with them. It's our relationship with those emotions that makes them light or dark. We tend to go through life looking for joy, and avoiding pain. Life has both joy and pain, and becoming too attached to the pleasure and too averse to the pain is often what causes us to hurt more than we should.

Remember, the code doesn't go "There is no dark side emotion, there is light side emotion." It talks of emotion, yet peace in the turmoil of them. It's about balance, and healthy relationship with emotion. Even the Mythic Jedi had to deal with emotions. Obi-Wan felt pain when Anakin turned. He felt pain in the Clone Wars when his love interest was killed. Anakin felt pain when his mother died. He felt pain when he feared losing Padme. What made the difference between them?

Nai_Elyob wrote: I do not agree that Love can be misused. Many of the examples given are not Love, and never were. Love is a potent emotion, but it is easily confused with infatuation, lust, and obsession. Real Love isn't about attachment, and it starts with self-love. Eros is a breeding instinct. Agape is the compassionate love for all living things which springs forth as a natural extension of self-love, and the recognition of ourselves in every other living being. Romantic love is the recognition of a counterpoint in another which creates an existential desire to join lives, and is yet another extension of self-love.

Sorry, I forgot to put this in the last one. I agree with you to a point, but emotion is not a very exact thing. Taken to an extreme, I think any emotion can take control and become an obsession. Agape seems to be a very Christian term. According to Mirriam-Webster, the first known use isn't until after 1500. The Greeks may have used the term before that, but I can't find any usage in English beyond Christian usage. This makes it a pretty subjective term, because it's a God-like, unconditional love, and if one questions the reality of a biblical God, one could question this emotion's very existence.

Agape seems to be controversial in the Christian community, too. I found one site that explained at as something you do, rather than feel. If that's the case, is it even an emotion, or more a philosophy? They may have got it wrong, but it kind of reminded me of our "religion vs. philosophy" discussion.

Now, this may be an extreme example, but what about the story in the 2004 version of I, Robot (with Will Smith). The robots are like a manifestation of agape--serving humankind to the best of their ability. They eventually take over, and try to pretty much imprison the humans to protect them from themselves. They pretty much figure that humans do such horrible things to each other that they can't allow that to happen anymore. This is oppressive to the humans, though. You and I have spoken of myth and story and its ability to teach us about ourselves. Couldn't this be a warning that even such a pure thing as a love of humankind can be corrupted, taken out of context, and cause problems? Look inside yourself. Perhaps you feel hatred toward some politicians or leaders because it looks like they are hurting their people for the good of a few. Depending what you do with that hatred, it could be the agape caused you to take "dark" actions. So, in essence, couldn't that agape feeling be the start of something horrible?

the negative (and serious) health effects of stress are pretty well understood, and no one older than 15 should doubt the importance of (if not general emotional balance then at least) basic impulse control

the evolutionary benefit of anger (for instance) is that it gives us emotional charge to face dangerous situations - staying angry all the time or having the habit of nursing anger or resentment is debilitating to the body in all kinds of ways

we arent built to STAY in fight or flight mode or to revisit it over and over every day (thats basically what anger is)

i dont think anyone who has done any real study of emotions would tell you that there are "bad" emotions or that you are a bad person for having them, what you will be told is that there are better and worse ways of handling your emotions, the short version being that the "better" ways are healthier and the "worse" ways will consistently produce more problems in your life than the "better" ways

the ways that we CHOOSE to deal with our emotions is the where distinction between "light" and "dark" is made

(and that is also dependent on how you use the word "dark," because we dont all use it the same way)