Hey Reader,

A bit of a somber one this time.

Today I'm thinking about justice.

Specifically, the anger that arises when seemingly-unsurpassable injustice takes place.

I recently had a conversation with someone who described a very heartbreaking set of circumstances.

Imagine this: You leave your home country to build a business abroad. It goes well - until something happens back home. A family member passes away, so you fly back to say goodbye and handle the paperwork. But when you get there, you find out other family members have gone behind your back to try to undermine you as next of kin, which becomes a legal battle. This is the first set of betrayals.

This affects your business abroad, which you cannot handle because you aren't there. In your absence, you're not just betrayed, but actually accused of a crime you didn't commit. You have evidence it didn't happen, and the accuser doesn't have any evidence that it did. But the system is against you - so you end up in prison. And not just for a few days while it's sorted out, but for over half a year. The system just doesn't seem to care.

Then to top it off, whilst you're in prison, you're abused. It turns out the system is corrupt, that you're attacked, beaten, and actually almost killed. Not by inmates, but by guards. And while you fight and eventually win your battle, you don't get anything for it. Mental health issues have arisen, and time is gone that you can never get back. Not to mention the impact on your relationships and career.

Imagine this happened to you...

How do you trust people again?

How do you trust systems again?

By the way, this is a situation didn't happen in "some far off place". It happened here in the UK, where I currently live.

It's unimaginable for many people, but it's also a very real reality for more people than you might think. 45 HM Prison and Probation Service staff were prosecuted for corruption-related offences in 2024, which while it doesn't sound like a large number, could represent hundreds of inmates. And considering that the UK's Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) only refers about 2.6% of applications to appeals courts, how often do you think this really happens?

And that's before we talk about intensity of crime. There are no reliable statistics about the level of corruption - probably because it would be easy to cover up. So we need witness testimony, which is limited and unpopular in the media.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is often used to illustrate how quickly people may conform to abusive roles when a system grants one group sweeping authority over another. The TLDR: corruption becomes more likely when people have a monopoly over resources or force, wide discretion, and little accountability.

And it's not just in prisons; the same pattern can appear in police forces, care homes, companies, schools or companies with authoritarian cultures.

Once authority is concentrated, oversight is weak, and the institution treats loyalty as more important than transparency, ordinary people may rationalise harmful behaviour as “just doing the job.” s

Victims may be disbelieved, and misconduct can become normalised, rather than recognised as what it is: corruption.

So why am I talking about this today?

I'm thinking very specifically today about the anger - the emotion - caused by this very specific type of injustice.

What happens when it feels impossible to do something because the system is bigger than you and the level and structure of the corruption make it feel impossible to do anything about it? When there is something you just have to conform to because it's the system?

It makes you angry and boxed in. We lose basic freedoms, and the promises we feel have been made to us in society become broken.

There's a psychological concept called reactance, whereby when people feel their choice is removed, even if they would otherwise normally like doing a thing, they would no longer want to do it. I find this interesting because it illustrates a very deep human concept, which is that choice and integrity are very important to us.

Another example is how, in the UK right now, we have an interesting situation where where a lot of people are leaving or desire to leave, because they feel like the UK's challenges are mounting up and are just becoming insurmountable.

These are just a few examples of what I call justified anger at immovable circumstances.

This is when something systemic and entrenched creates anger and frustration, that seems like it cannot be realistically channeled into action and change.

So, what do we do about that?

This is the real conversation today.

If we think about something really sticky, like climate change, where it feels so, so much bigger than us, and we can only make tiny droplets of change...

We can still argue we can do something about it. Amazing activists do this already, all the time.

But many people give up, whether partly or entirely.

"We have to get on with our lives" - so we distract ourselves, dissociate from it, develop coping mechanisms...

But that doesn't solve the issue.

And there is a healthier response.

Step 1: Regain your choice

There is an old story about a conversation the Buddha had with someone, who was complaining about another person who had wronged them.

The Buddha asked a question: "If you were hit with an arrow, would it hurt?"

The person replied: "Yes, of course."

Then the Buddha asked: "If you were hit with a second arrow in the same spot, would it also hurt?"

"Yes, of course."

And the Buddha revealed his lesson: "The wrongdoing is like the first arrow. Your attachment to it is like the second."

In other words, we cannot change the fact someone else inflicted pain upon us in the past.

But we do have the agency to decide if we want to keep inflicting pain upon ourselves in the present, by choosing whether to think about it and relive it, over and over, or let it go.

Regaining your choice means deciding, on your own, where to place your attention.

When you zoom out and see the whole picture, detaching from the situation, you can begin to take it less personally.

This doesn't mean caring less. Instead, it simply means the situation doesn't control you.

Do not give the system two victories. It has already done the external harm to you - why would you give it ownership of your inner life too?

Step 2: Channel those emotions usefully

Everything in nature exists for a reason. Including our challenging emotions like anger.

The upside of anger is that it can push you to fight injustice, thus making our world a better place.

But only if you do that consciously - and it's a fine line between consciously channeling that anger and letting it control you. Without fine control, it can become egotistic and destructive. (Including self-destructive.)

So we can consciously choose where we want that energy to go. Here's how:

1. If this is useful, then you need to decide how to use it. The is not "How do I get rid of anger?”, and instead becomes “What is this anger asking me to protect, repair, or stand for?”
2. Recognise the thought patterns, and use them to deiced what to make yours, and what to let go. (Use the examples below as a reference).
3. Act.

Example action triggers:

• When you notice: “This is unbearable”
  • Ask yourself: What specific value has been violated?
  • Turn it into: A clear value, such as dignity, safety, truth, equality, or care.
• When you notice: “Someone must do something”
  • Ask yourself: What is actually within my reach?
  • Turn it into: One defined action.
• When you notice: “I have to fix all of it”
  • Ask yourself: What is mine to carry, and what belongs to the collective?
  • Turn it into: A sustainable role.
• When you notice: “I need to vent”
  • Ask yourself: Do I need release, connection, or change?
  • Turn it into: Movement, conversation, creativity, organising, or advocacy.

Getting this right is the emotionally fit thing to do.

Instead of getting sucked in, zoom out. Then, consciously use your resources - including the energy that the emotion itself gives you - to change your world.

Systemic injustice is so infuriating because it's systemic. Because it seems to much bigger than you, and it can feel like everyone/everything is against you in those moments.

But you cannot control the ocean. You can only learn to surf its waves.

Have a beautiful weekend Reader,

- Seven

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