I think we need a lot more rage these days. Society is dominated by a corrupt minority that is quickly undermining civilization's benefits for the majority, its stability, and quite possibly the survival of most of the human race. Most everyone else is not making correct decisions in response, because they're burying their rage for the sake of short-term self-preservation.
You're making a few logical mistakes here: 1) Just because emotional rage would in this case lead to a globally better situation doesn't mean that emotional rage is justified. 2) Just because humanity is making decisions with negative global impact doesn't mean that they aren't being rational about their decisions.
The reason for acceptance of corruption is and has always been the same reason: Egoism. You see, everyone has a set of axiomatic values they orient their life upon (otherwise they wouldn't be able to make decisions). In most cases, the preservation of one's life and quality thereof is either one of those axiomatic values (for this discussion, "egoism" shall be defined as the possession of that value) or follows from one of those values. Because of this, the corruption problem is a Prisoners' Dilemma. Taking part in a societal revolution is a risk: No matter what everyone else does, the expected preservation and quality of life is higher when you personally don't participate. Since most people are egoists in the sense above, they will not participate. This is the biggest reason for societal decline, q.e.d. : (
As such, necessary rage that stopped me from collapsing and giving in. Rage that made me act instead of take it. Are you trying to impose social pressure by saying you lose respect for me when I defend myself? Well, go ahead. I like my face the way it is, thank you very much.
Nobody needs that type of rage anymore.
I quite simply do not agree. Correction, you don't need that type of rage.
You're making the same logical mistake as SalmonGod: Just because rage is the reason you defended yourself, doesn't mean rage is the reason you
should have defended yourself. I did assume from your description that the guy was just throwing a random punch, but if the guy was actually out to beat people up, then I would, in your position, have done the same thing as you, because it is the best thing to do in this situation (if you're good enough at fighting). Adrenaline can be useful for this kind of situation, and I approve of you using that rage for this purpose, as do I approve of you doing the (now evidently) right thing in that situation, but I judge you for your claim that rage controlled your actions.
Now since your clarification I can't actually know whether or not you actually did let rage control your actions or if you just said that to comfort Tiruin, but I would still like to let you know that letting rage control your actions is not a good idea, and my intention in this discussion is that I would like to make you stop thinking that it is a good idea.