Does all anger give rise to evil acts?

We would all agree that anger gives rise to many evil acts, not anger per se, but anger that has become trapped. If your awareness is open and free, anger flows through it. This applies both to rage generated inside yourself when you feel victimized, and anger that comes from outside, in the form of attack. Both are meant to leave when their job is done. Anger's work is to alert your defense systems. Aggression and defense are part of the survival repertoire of almost every species that must compete to mate, find food, and occupy territory. What is unnatural is to hold on to rage. Festering, it feeds on itself and eventually breaks out in violence.

Every living system that goes out of balance attempts to right itself. This is true of your blood pressure and your heart rate but also of the rain forest or a population of birds. Pressure on the system from one side -- such as lack of food, absence of homeground, or the sudden intrusion of enemies -- causes a reaction to shove the system back into balance. Violence is the most extreme response to imbalance. Despite all the talk about human beings being innately violent, aren't we also innately gentle? The evidence for both is equally strong. So evil may come down to stress: being pushed so far beyond one's ability to cope that aggression has no choice but to push back. The appalling fact that the terrorists of September 11 were willing to commit suicide struck many as testimony to their absolute evil. I took it as asign of absolute desperation. As individuals, none of these attackers could cope with a world that had injured them, to the point that survival wasn't an option anymore.