Is Anger OK?

I suddenly thought about how my generation may be described (amongst other things) as perhaps a very angry generation. We see the things around us that are wrong, and we get angry about that. This is a good thing.

Lame example of a society's anger: the woman who put the cat in the wheelie bin. Look how much attention that got, and how viciously angry (rightfully in my opinion) we got as a nation.

But what about other things? What about the issues I feel are most pressing for our anger:
- hunger and poverty - sweatshops - inequality - restricting laws - corporations reigning control over everything - money being the motive behind any action - cruelty

There are plenty more things I'm sure, but these sprang to mind first.

In the past couple of years I have had to learn the very hard lessons about how life is not fair in the slightest, how humanity has bureaucratised every action to record and ultimately control it. Right now you're on the internet, the biggest technological linking system in the world for free speech and communication. However everything else in life involves you having to be a number on a list, to surrender to terms and conditions, to be forced to have to pay companies for things you need to live. I understand to create and sustain a society there needs to be organisation and funding to make it work, but how come so many things get ballsed up?

For example, when we moved last November to here, our new agency wrote to the council telling them we were the new tenents and we needed to be charged council tax accordingly. Luckily I went down in person to check all was correct, and it turns out that although they had added us as the new occupiers of the flat, they had not realised that we were no longer at our old address, and so were going to charge us for both places! Imagine the hassle of having to get a refund on that...

But my complaint: can strong negative emotions actually get us anywhere helpful these days? By making a stand but not causing damage or breaking the law; by fighting the authorities but not getting ground down into dusty numbers to keep them tidy as our voice is filed along with everyone else's "feedback" and ultimately ignored; by keeping people having the stamina to carry the cause until it is fixed. How many of us have given to a charity, but only for a while? Or decided to avoid a certain company's business because we don't agree with how the operate? Or giving up something for a stand? I know I have done all of those.

But I am so tired. Weariness comes after anger. I couldn't afford my own keep, so I had to stop donating money regularly to charities. I could not afford to buy clothes from only reliable Fair Trade sources, or the products I needed were made by companies who perhaps practised unethical methods. I missed bacon.

I am only human. At least I get comfort in knowing God will help me whenever I get angry and He can help me really do something about it. Whatever that may be. I've got a while to find it.