No Hard Feelings: Indignation
3 minute read
Indignation (n.) – a feeling of anger about a situation that is deemed as unfair or wrong. From Old French indignacion, ‘fury, rage or disrespect’ and from Latin indignationem.
Famously felt by: Jo March in the film adaptation of Little Women (2019). She exclaims “women have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts and they’ve got ambition and talent as well as just beauty and I’m so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for.”
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Have you caught yourself chewing on your lip when something feels unfair, or noticed your breath quicken when you believe something is profoundly wrong? That’s indignation: a sense of injustice, the urge to interrupt, an action fueled by anger. But unlike anger (which explodes), fear (which makes us retreat) or annoyance (which merely huffs and puffs), indignation is different. It is anger with a moral compass.
To understand indignation, it helps to see how its meaning has shifted over time. In the 17th century, the political philosopher Thomas Hobbes linked it to resentment against oppression – “anger for great hurt done to another.” Long before Hobbes, Aristotle had framed it differently: indignation (nemesis) was not the protest of the downtrodden but the outrage of the privileged when honours or rewards were bestowed on the undeserving – pain at another’s unmerited good fortune.
As humans we are morally wired, instinctively sorting actions into right and wrong: kindness – good; bullying – bad.
Our moral compasses may differ, shaped by personality, upbringing or culture, yet some things are near universal. Most of us feel indignation when faced with unfairness.
“How dare you,” Greta Thunberg exclaimed at the 2019 Climate Action Summit, her voice cutting through the room of world leaders. As a teenager, she channelled her fury into a call for accountability, reminding the world what is at stake. Critics accused her of being too angry. Her reply? “I think the world needs a lot more young, angry women.” Greta embodies indignation: a sharp, unflinching response to inaction that threatens the future.
Indignation itself is an intense emotion, fuelled by feelings we recognise more easily – anger, fear, defiance, shock. These primary emotions can mask indignation’s true nature, leaving us confused about why we feel such a physical need to respond.
But beneath the first rush lies a signal: the knot in your stomach, the heat rising through your body, all urging action. This is indignation stepping in – the body’s way of alerting the mind to protest injustice.
Indignation can be a driving force for purpose and for change. And in our age, the causes are everywhere: abuses of power, the hypocrisy of institutions, the minimising of human rights. The question isn’t if we’ll encounter injustice, but how we respond.
Be indignant. Feelings are uncontrollable, often crashing over us when we least expect them. What matters is how we harness them – how we catch the wave before it breaks. It’s where meaning is made: the friction between what we feel and what we choose to do.
