Nick,

You address the issue of projecting anger as pent up emotion, yet the more conceptually interesting issue might be the nature of judgement.

As mobile organisms we constantly have to absorb enormous amounts of information and often reactively make decisions, based on our emotional reactions and the logical frameworks we have constructed, in order to navigate life. Yet my impression is that we can absorb much more information and understand it better, if we tamp down that need to judge. If we let that information sort itself out a bit more, before our own need to jump to conclusions inserts itself.

This is a somewhat more passive approach to life, but it enables a broader vision. Like being a passenger and enjoying the scenery, as opposed to being the driver and only focused on what is directly ahead. Not that this should be an exclusive outlook, but balanced with the focus on the details.

Thought is that cycle between reductionism and contextualization, as we distill out those clear nuggets of knowledge, than figure out how they best fit into a larger reality.

One of the main underlaying problems is that we have an ideals based culture, while nature is more the balance and tension of polarities. Friction isn’t just an inconvenience, but a large part of what makes it real.