Anger. The inner brain overwhelms the frontal cortex, takes over, so to speak, the controls. Reason succumbs to emotion, outer brain succumbs to amygdalae. William Blake provides us with the perfect metaphor:
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? *
Unbridled emotion doesn’t submit easily to bridling. It doesn’t submit to any contextual or environmental awareness. You’ve seen it in public places; you’ve seen it just about anywhere and at any time. You’ve seen it in others; hopefully, you’ve not seen it in yourself. Oh! Maybe you’ve been mildly perturbed, but certainly not so angry that you pick up a knife to stab someone or a gun to shoot with shaking hands driven by adrenalin.
Anger erases time and place, doesn’t it? And there’s no better example of that than a video of an angry woman getting out of a car on safari and walking to the driver side to berate her husband about who knows what. The video shows her shouting through the driver’s window; she’s unaware of all else. The question “Where am I now?” never enters her head. Suddenly, a tiger approaches from behind, grabs her, and drags her off camera. **
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire? *
The husband gets out of the vehicle, takes a few steps toward the tiger and wife, and then he retreats unsure of how he could possibly approach the wild animal. Another passenger emerges from the car, and they both take a few cautious steps toward the woman and tiger, both still off camera. Then a truck appears from the bushes, apparently driven by a safari ranger who drives toward the tiger, going off camera, supposedly to save the woman. **
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? *
Anger. It can erase all awareness. It can put Self in danger. It cooperates with real tigers in real settings to ambush. And those who try to restore the outer brain’s control find themselves in danger by trying to “grasp” a tiger, not by tail, but by claw.
*https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-globally/woman-ventures-out-of-car-in-the-middle-of-safari-gets-attacked-by-tiger-8582300/. Accessed April 29, 2023. The video shows stopped cars on a “safari” and a angry woman getting out of the passenger side to approach her husband on the driver side. Facing the driver and seemingly arguing with him, she fails to notice the tiger that grabs her from behind and drags her off camera. The video went, as you might easily guess, viral.
**For the complete Blake poem see https://poets.org/poem/tyger
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry? *
Unbridled emotion doesn’t submit easily to bridling. It doesn’t submit to any contextual or environmental awareness. You’ve seen it in public places; you’ve seen it just about anywhere and at any time. You’ve seen it in others; hopefully, you’ve not seen it in yourself. Oh! Maybe you’ve been mildly perturbed, but certainly not so angry that you pick up a knife to stab someone or a gun to shoot with shaking hands driven by adrenalin.
Anger erases time and place, doesn’t it? And there’s no better example of that than a video of an angry woman getting out of a car on safari and walking to the driver side to berate her husband about who knows what. The video shows her shouting through the driver’s window; she’s unaware of all else. The question “Where am I now?” never enters her head. Suddenly, a tiger approaches from behind, grabs her, and drags her off camera. **
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire? *
The husband gets out of the vehicle, takes a few steps toward the tiger and wife, and then he retreats unsure of how he could possibly approach the wild animal. Another passenger emerges from the car, and they both take a few cautious steps toward the woman and tiger, both still off camera. Then a truck appears from the bushes, apparently driven by a safari ranger who drives toward the tiger, going off camera, supposedly to save the woman. **
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp? *
Anger. It can erase all awareness. It can put Self in danger. It cooperates with real tigers in real settings to ambush. And those who try to restore the outer brain’s control find themselves in danger by trying to “grasp” a tiger, not by tail, but by claw.
*https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-globally/woman-ventures-out-of-car-in-the-middle-of-safari-gets-attacked-by-tiger-8582300/. Accessed April 29, 2023. The video shows stopped cars on a “safari” and a angry woman getting out of the passenger side to approach her husband on the driver side. Facing the driver and seemingly arguing with him, she fails to notice the tiger that grabs her from behind and drags her off camera. The video went, as you might easily guess, viral.
**For the complete Blake poem see https://poets.org/poem/tyger
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