Political Resistance Lisa Tessman Summary

Lisa Tessman’s article describes the three problematic traits towards political resistance: anger, courage, and loyalty. With anger, Tessman thinks that political resisters need to “train” or control their anger carefully; otherwise, it could lead to errors where people can become angry at the wrong target or use their anger to an excessive degree (Tessman, 120). When people attack the wrong target, it makes it harder for officials to find the oppressors who did the deeds. For example, if African Americans attack the Whites for causing injustices of slavery, the question would determine which makes us angry: the Whites in general or the Whites’ unjust actions. The wrong target is to attack the people rather than the action. This is where the excessive degree comes in. After African Americans attack the Whites or the Whites attack African Americans, they start to develop second-level anger where they might retaliated, developing hatred and division between the races; moreover, they want to retaliate rather than reconciling the situation. The argument Tessman makes is that anger can be a burdened virtue when a moderate-person degrades himself or others or a full-angered …show more content…
We can say that we’re angry, but how we use our emotions turns into action. When we have happiness, we could use our happiness to cheer or encourage people when they are down. When we are depressed, we can find therapists to comfort us or we can choose to commit suicide. This also applies to anger. What do we do with anger? Tessman states that what makes anger problematic is that anger become an emotion with multiple tasks. People use anger to promote change against injustice; others will use anger as an excuse to hold grudges or seek vengeance against people. The question is how can people express their anger or reason for being angry when they do not address the problem from the