“But i know the rage that drives you…that impossible anger strangling the grief until your loved one’s memory is just poison in your veins….And one day you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed so you could be spared your pain.”

Anger and Rage - fuel of tomorrow?
Anger and Rage, such negative, violent emotions, how can they be good to anybody?! Those familiar with Terry Pratchett’s books know how. In those books Police Commander Samuel Vimes is driven by rage and anger too, and everybody knows it, including himself. Rage and Anger is for Vimes what carbohydrates are for the rest of us – it is just a fuel which makes him tick, the same way petrol makes the cylinders in our cars tick.

A characteristic of his is his anger: when he’s on form he radiates a field of angered innocence which his wife believes is part of his essential Vimesness (j). He has also been known to vibrate with the internal anger of a man who wants to arrest the gods for not doing it right. He gets livid with rage with The Times about once a week.
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The ONLY difference between Vimes and Bruce is that Vimes is fully aware of that fact and Bruce, our “good-doer-to-be” does not know it.. YET. Bruce is driven entirely by anger and rage, and that is, in fact, what keeps him alive, that is what enables him to survive day after day in a prison which is worse than Hell itself

Ego Bashing “Batman Begins” style
So our Hero is rescued from the very tough prison by some unknown Stranger. Not only that. The Stranger promises Bruce a Paradise on Earth… but at a price of getting there. It is not easy, since this promised Paradise is somewhere on top of the World.. but sure enough.. internal anger enables Bruce to get there. What reward does he get for that? GOOD KICKING. The Stranger attacks our Hero and beats him to a pulp. Not only that. Every time Bruce tries to fight back – he gets good kicking. Every time Bruce tries to resign the fight – he gets good kicking. Every time Bruce thinks he actually won the fight – he gets good kicking. It seems so cruel, unfair, senseless fight – but there is a point to it: It is our Ego that tries to win – not us. And as long as our Ego tries to win – we lose. It is only when Bruce’s Ego finally gives up that the beating stops - but only then.

This scene, the most important scene in the film me thinks, will most likely seem familiar to many people. It is a paraphrase of the situation most of us have experienced one time or another – when we had problems and tried to battle against them.. and the more we battled against them – the more problems would come our way. And it was only when we TRULY and FULLY resigned ourselves… that the problems went away.. on their own accord.

Amygdala: Anger as a bodily response to Fear

The amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for identifying threats to our well-being, and for sending out an alarm when threats are identified that results in us taking steps to protect ourselves. The amygdala is so efficient at warning us about threats, that it gets us reacting before the cortex is able to check on the reasonableness of our reaction. In other words, our brains are wired in such a way as to influence us to act before we can properly consider the consequences of our actions.
Physiology of Anger

Anger Management
Anger is one of our emotions. It is PERFERCLY NORMAL to be angry. It is DENYING ourselves our own anger that eats our souls, destroys our bodies and ruins our lives. Bruce denied himself his anger ever since his parents got killed. Sure, he still had this anger in him, sure, this anger did enable him to survive tough prison conditions and perform other inhuman feasts. But wasn’t it his denial of anger which got him into a prison in the first place? And although he was surviving life, what kind of existence was he living? Existence full of pain and misery in the world full of enemies and not even one friend.

It was our Stranger, Bruce’s “bad guy” Guru who finally taught Bruce how to accept and embrace one’s own anger. And how to use it not only to transform one’s own life, but also to transform lives of others, in an absolutely positive, inspiring and uplifting way.

Transcendental Meditation
Some people believe that anger can actually be transcended into some more positive and uplifting feelings such as love or compassion. But even if such feast was readily and easily possible, why the hell would anybody want to do so? Supposing you transform all your anger into a love toward somebody. What will you achieve by that? IMBALANCE! Too much love will most likely manifest itself in obsession. And lack of anger will mean lack of important communication channel between yourself and your loved one. Can you really imagine Commander Vimes or Batman fighting bad guys if they were full of Jesus-like Love and Compassion?

It is our actions that define us, not our words
Touchẻ of Satre here. The girl loves him, he loves her. But he cannot tell her or demonstrate to her who he really is. Misunderstandings, frustrations ensue, all in the realm of words, not actions. WORSE! She is a journalist – for her words spell the REALITY. She wishes he was like a Superman, she wishes he was like a Batman…. not knowing that he IS! She never even allows her mind to speculate on the possibility that this man could be not only the man she loves, but also the man she desires - all because of words and definitions. And it is only by pure luck, by pure chance, that his REAL identity is revealed to her. Otherwise they would both go through this life, frustrated in love, missing each other and not even knowing that they have always been together.

And that again I think happened to most of us in our relationships. We very rarely get a chance to reveal our true self to another person, or even to ourselves. It is only in moments of desparate needs when we are able to expose our shining spirit to ourselves and others.

Pressups
Batman is trapped under a burning beam. Alfred encourages him to get up, by saying, come on you tart (or some such) get up, what were all those press-ups for?