Rage and Social Phenomenon
In Dianne Hales’s essay “why are you so angry?”, she talks about a social phenomenon that more and more Americans are feeling pushed to the breaking point and she gives several suggestions which could help you calm down from the anger. She started with an instance which happened to Jerry Sola when he was in his evening commute through the Chicago suburbs two years ago. At that time, a driver in front of a fifty-year-old salesman suddenly slammed the brakes. Sola got so incensed that he gunned his engine to cut in front of the man. When they both stopped at a red light, Sola grabbed a golf club and got out. When he was about to smash the man’s windshield or do him some damage, he realized that the consequence after he did it: what if he killed a man, he went to jail and he destroyed two families because of that moment. So he went back into his car and drove away. Then she made a conclusion that no one seems immune to the anger epidemic. Women fly off the handle just as often as men and young may seem more volatile, even senior citizens have erupted into “line rage” and pushed ahead of others easily. Then she described the situation right now: violent outbursts are just likely to occur in leafy suburbs as in crowded cities, even idyllic vacation spots are not immune. Ironically, the sheer complexity of our lives also shortened our collective fuse. We rely on computers that crash, drive on roads that gridlock, place calls to machines that put us on endless hold. These examples make us feel that we don’t have control of our lives. In order to deal with this issue, she gave us several suggestions. The first suggestion is to get a grip. She gave us an example about St. Louis. When he faced the trouble that his lawn mower wouldn’t start, he smashed it against the patio. In the end, he learned that such outburst accomplished nothing. “Venting” may make you feel better---but only for a moment. The second one is to be aware of that catharsis is worse than