inkbluesky

The Targets of Aggression

Consider The Iliad, which tells of many wrongs and their tragic consequencesin particular, the anger of Achilles as he reacts to the pain inflicted on him by Agamemnon, who took his woman, Briseis. With Achilles famously sulking in his tent, and the Greeks losing to the Trojans, Agamemnon attempts, unsuccessfully, to get the great warrior to fight. What finally moves Achilles to action is when he suffers additional pain — the loss of his friend/lover Patrocles — after which he vows, “I will not give you burial, Patrocles, until I carry back the gear and head of him who killed you, noble friend.” But that’s not all. Achilles is not satisfied with mere revenge (a behavior intimately linked to redirected aggression, as we’ll see). He demands more, swearing that others — innocents — shall also suffer for his pain: “Before your funeral pyre I’ll cut the throats of twelve resplendent children of the Trojans.”

The general gist of the article is how dangerous misplaced or misdirected anger and revenge can be. As if revenge itself wasn’t dangerous enough, see Les Miserables .

thinking and waiting 

Conservatives Sure Are Funny 

State Rep. Bob Allen plans to miss a court hearing in his criminal case this week to return to a place he could find equally unpleasant: the Florida House.

“I suspect it will be extremely difficult and uncomfortable for him during the special session,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. “The leadership has made it clear they want him gone.”

Allen, R-Merritt Island, is scheduled to go on trial Nov. 5 on charges of offering to pay $20 to perform a sex act on a male undercover police officer in a public park. He has said he is innocent.

That’s kinda funny. Sad, but funny. Pam found this recent statement that Allen made to the press, He also said that — he plans to run for the state Senate in 2010: “I’m waiting for the politics to say it’s OK to hug Bob Allen again — and they will.” Allen also thinks he looks like Brad Pitt and plans to charge $20 a hug.