Here is the context from the book I am reading:
Character A: Watch your temper.
Character B: Anger is relative. Others are mad enough to kill, but not I.
What is meant by “Anger is relative?” It sounds incomplete. I know “relative” means “in comparison to,” but obviously the character doesn’t say what exactly anger is relative to.
In: 1
Anger is not a numeric value that causes specific effects at specific points.
Sometimes something makes you more angry; sometimes the same thing makes you less angry. Someone else may not care at all.
Saying “X is relative” is just another way of saying it’s subjective.
Like you might perceive someone as angry. But really they just have a different cultural background than you do where yelling is much more acceptable, whereas for you raising your voice is a complete taboo.
Or maybe their face shape just results in them looking pissed off when they totally aren’t.
Or maybe for them being a little argumentative is how they strengthen their bonds with their loved ones, but you completely hate all arguments.
Each person’s anger is relative to another person’s. It says that in the second sentence. His anger is lesser, relative to the anger of a person who would kill.
This is why i hate english sometimes, you’re not wrong in your assessment, but the term “anger is relevant” just refers to factoring on the possibilities as to why someone is angry, it can also include yourself. For example, you could be yelling at a store clerk you’ve never met for bagging your product too slowly, but you’re not angry at them. You were looking for a reason to project already existing anger and until you find and address the root of it, you’ll just continue being angry. Anger in a person is relative to their personal dilemmas (recent and long ago).
I’m not the best at explaining with few words so i hope it was all cohesive.
Anger is relative = what is “out of control angry” for one person is (possibly) not very angry for another. The effect of anger is not in the emotion itself, but how you deal with it.
If someone called your girlfriend ugly, you would likely get angry, but if someone called a stranger’s girlfriend ugly, you likely would not get angry; therefore, your anger is relative.
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