SELF-WITNESSING
REPORT ON THE AGE OF RAGE
Tuning into Mental Broadcasts during the Rage
April
1, 2001
My
subject of discussion is Rage. Rage is
an extremely vague word used to describe an ambiguous situation. You probably carry your own connotation
about the word RAGE, but do you really know what it is? In order to understand ‘the realm of rage,’
we must try to uncover the motives involved.
The reasons why? And the people involved. I have prepared a site that will take you through the minds of
people who have encountered serious episodes of Rage. Forget the time, you are going to get an all access pass to one
of the most interesting sites on the web.
Click
right here to visit the mysterious World of Rage, and prepare your brain for
the roller coaster ride of no return.
Please take a quick peak at my site.
It will give you a brief outlook on some of the crazy things that are
going on in the World of Rage. You will
find episodes of Police Rage, Work Rage, Sports Rage, Phone Rage, and last but
not least, Air Rage. If you open your
mind, you will definitely be intrigued by the stories I have to share with you,
because they are completely off the wall.
All
the Rage that is happening is a reflection of our society as a whole. Our experiences manifest and morph into
different schemes that continuously change during the span of our
lifetime. As a result, we all have
different expectations. The ‘one track
mind’ that controls us, prevents us from seeing the perspectives of other
people in rage full situations. This is
due to the simple fact that ‘when we think we are in danger, we will act in an
ambiguous manner.’ Our train of thought
becomes distorted when we are scared.
It is in our nature to make the wrong judgments when we feel jaded. In conclusion, the Rage that is happening
explains to me that people are always afraid of loosing something, whether it
is their pride or their life. I believe
that the more stability you have, the less you are afraid. Stability is something you gain with
experience, if this is true, older people would probably be a lot less afraid than
people from the younger generations. I
don’t think anything significant could ever happen to ‘reduce the rage,’
because in order for that to happen we would have to find a way to install
confidence into people, which is very hard to do. When people perform an act of Rage all they are doing is trying
to install fear into their counterpart.
The human mind works in a subconscious, reciprocal manner. These raggers think that if they install
fear into someone, it will decrease the chances that they will become afraid,
and it will boost their level of confidence.
It is a method that works towards the deconstruction of society. I am aware of this fact, and that is the why
I try not to commit acts of Rage. I
want people to have confidence, and I never want to install fear into
anyone. It is hard to decipher whether
or not someone is purposefully doing something to intimidate you, especially
when you are driving, so the best thing to do is ignore it. You never want to hurt anyone if you don’t
know his or her intentions. People are
generally misunderstood, so stop judging!!!
Give them the benefit of the doubt, it won’t hurt you pride.
1) An Unfortunate Encounter With A Rude Police Officer
Step 1: Acknowledge
It was one o’clock in the morning and
I was driving home from work when this pig notices that I am driving little
quickly so he pulls me over. It is
really stupid because my car was the only car on the road, and I wasn't putting
anyone in danger. I ask myself, where
are all the cops in broad daylight when people are speeding continuously on
Kalanianaole Highway? These stupid pigs
don't care about our safety; they're just worried about filling their traffic
ticket criteria for the month. To top it off, this officer was totally rude to
me, and because this was the first time I was ever approached by an officer for
speeding I was a little scared. Now,
because of this one cop, I think all officers are like that. Somebody help me change the way I think, or
lets all join together and kill those pigs.
Step 2: Witness
If you have ever seen a police car
from close up, the words Integrity, Respect, and Fairness appear in big bold
letters across the side of the it. In
my previous 'speeding ticket' experience I felt (affective behavior) violated
because I was being verbally abused by this officer. It may have been a little extravagant of me to use the word 'pig',
but that's what some of us call officers when they are abusing their
power. Also, I think some people were
offended when I said 'lets all join together and kill them all.' The line before that I said 'somebody help
me to change the way I think' in other words 'somebody stop me from attaching a
negative stereotype to every officer.’
I know that some officers are very nice people, but it is very difficult
to look at their good side when you have been disrespected. Anyway, the point of this class is to
controllably vent your anger, and if we can't speak our mind, then that defeats
the most beneficial purpose of the assignment. I don't know if I offended you,
but if did, I don't think you should be because this is my personal life that I
am typing into this computer. I could understand if I was talking about a book
or something, but I am writing about my own experiences of rage. For me it's a
little difficult to truly vent my rage when I am trying to limit myself so that
the words fit certain norms. When I am
sitting in the comfort of my own home and I am angry about something that
occurred, it is very difficult to control my emotions, especially when it
involves rage.
I understand that I might have been looking at the
situation in an egotistical, one-sided manner, so I decided to look at the
other side of the story. I put myself
in the officer’s shoes and this is what I came up with. They know why they have to be mean. They
know that a nice cop is not effective. Imagine if a cop let you go every time
you sped, of course, your behavior would not change, and you would probably
speed again. Now imagine if a cop just gave you a ticket. You would probably
try not to speed for a while, but you would probably continue doing it later on
in life. Maybe the officer is hoping
and praying that I won't speed again. I know that it is difficult to think
about, but he was trying to get a point across to me. He's probably seen a lot
of accidents involving deaths, and speeding, so maybe he was trying to do his
job to prevent them from happening. Maybe he results to rage whenever he runs
into a situation that could result in another accident. Maybe I should give the
cop a break, because he was just trying to do his job with force. He's only out
there to try and help us protect ourselves.
Now I am
arguing against the previous paragraph.
A nice
cop is only ineffective against those who are looking to break the law. The
monetary punishment is more than enough negative reinforcement as long as money
runs our nation. Obviously a cop would
have to be very authoritarian in order to control someone with a bad will, but
I had a good will because I was completely terrified. We shouldn't have to live
our lives in fear because of the people who are enforcing the law. I think that
cops don't have the right to make us afraid because not all of us have a
criminal mind. Maybe we just needed to
be given a little reminder that we were doing something wrong, and not a
pounding into the concrete. It might be true that a cop has seen the worst of
the worst, and maybe he thinks he can save another life, but do you really
think they are all good people trying to take care of our community. I've heard
more bad stories than good ones about officers, and maybe this is why they are
so shady. Maybe they think everyone is against them, so they think they are
threatened, and they have to enforce the law with such audacity because they
don't want to feel like the victim. This whole mentality is wrong, and we need
to start treating each other with respect no matter where we're from and what
we represent.
2)
Please Hold On Your Judgment Mister Store Clerk:
I’m No Criminal
Last summer, I
traveled to Germany along with several other students in from my study abroad
group. While I was in Europe, I went to
an office supply shop, because I was looking to purchase a staple gun. I got a very cold welcome from the store
clerk. My day was going perfectly fine
until he brought out the rage in me. I
think I am going to describe his rage, instead of mine, because the store clerk
was obviously very rude. You’ll see
what I mean.
My friend and me
were the only customers in the store, so the clerk avidly came out from behind
the counter to assist us. At least
that’s what I thought. Instead, he was
following us, because he thought we were going to steal something from his
precious store. I told my friend, Adam,
that I couldn’t find what I wanted, and I was ready to leave. Adam wanted to purchase something, so he
went to the cash register and waited for the store clerk to get his fat ass
behind the counter, but he refused, because I did not follow him. Adam walked to the front of the store, while
I continued to look around. I felt like
looking around the store for a little while more, instead of waiting for my
friend to purchase his merchandise. The
store clerk refused to let Adam purchase his merchandise until I moved my lazy
body to the front of the store. He was
treating me like a criminal, and I thought that was very demeaning to my
personality. I know I don’t steal, and
I had no intentions of stealing at all, but he had to assume that I was
dangerous. When Adam walked to the
front of the store, I stayed in the back.
The store clerk asked me if I needed any assistance, I said ‘no, I’m
fine.’ Then when I looked to see if
Adam was done purchasing his merchandise, I saw the store clerk hovering over
me. I looked up in confusion. I thought the store clerk was assisting my
friend, instead he was watching over me like a hawk, to make sure I wouldn’t
steal from his store. I could see sweat
dripping down from his face, and his forehead was wrinkled-up like a
raisin. He was sure that I was a
criminal. He was so terrified of
loosing money, and he didn’t care about my personal comfort as a customer in
his store. He must have been incredibly
uncomfortable with two adolescence in his store at the same time. He must have had a serious anxiety
attack. I wish he would not have placed
me into the stereotype of poor juvenile delinquents who like to steal, because
it made me very angry. The fear and
ignorance he feels towards teenagers allowed him to place me in this
category. He thought I posed a threat
to his survival, so he tried to make me feel like a criminal.
A lot of people
stereotype me because they don’t want to take the time to understand who I am,
I where I am from. Until you show some
interest, you are not allowed to openly judge me, because I will shut you
down. I might sound a little hasty, and
I’m sorry, but this store clerk made me very upset. The store clerk told me to come to the front of the store,
because he obviously felt threatened.
He didn’t want to leave me in the back of his store, because he felt
unsafe about it. Where are my rights,
and my personal freedom as a customer?
If I want to browse around in a store I should be able to. Maybe the store clerk thought we set up the
whole scenario. Maybe he thought Adam
went to the front of the store, so I could shove some thumbtacks in my back
pocket. That’s pretty ludicrous, but
maybe a lot of German kids like to steal thumbtacks. Maybe a lot of kids steal, or maybe he allowed his negative
stereotypes to control his life. I got
really pissed off at this guy, and I started telling him off. I said ‘do you think I’m a criminal? Don’t you ever judge me.’ I was very angry inside, but I was very
content when I released my feelings to him.
I told him, I would never take anything from his store. I really held my ground, and let him know
that stereotypes are nothing more than fiction. Our brain creates them when we are afraid, or ignorant to a
situation or a group of people. The
store clerk feared that I would steal something, because I was ‘around that
age.’ I think that was totally uncalled
for. You can’t go around judging people
based on their age of birth.
3) Turbulence Before Take-Off
I was traveling to the wonderful state of Washington
to visit my sister, but before I got there I experienced some rage aboard the
airplane. I was sitting in my seat,
when the passenger in front of me reclined his seat. Like everyone else in the world, I recline my chair, in
response. I’m 6’4”, and I need the
legroom, so I reclined my chair. The
guy sitting in back of me didn’t seem to like the idea. He asked me if I could put my sit up. I said ‘the passenger in front of me
reclined his chair, so I counteracted.’
He told me, very egotistically, to instruct the dude in front of me to
raise his seat up. He wanted me to go
out of my way for his comfort, the nerve of this guy. I cannot believe he actually thought I was going to think about it. He must be pampered like a king when he is
at home.
He was experiencing some serious
rage. When you are in an airplane you
must realize that it is like a community of people who don’t have a lot of
personal space. You must realize what
space is open to you, and what space is off limits. If you are in a chair that reclines, you have the right to
recline it. No one has the right to
tell you not to because you are entitled to the inclination. You are buying the seat; therefore you are
entitled to everything the chair is capable of.
When this man told me to raise my chair forward, I
said no. He was thinking of
himself. I guess he could not see that
I was much taller than him. He had the
nerve to tell me that he had long legs.
I guess he thought my legs had been amputated or something, because when
I sat in my chair I was taller than this guy.
When he told me that his legs were long, I was thinking, ‘the nerve of
this guy, who does he think he is?’
Even though I don’t want to admit it, I did tense up a bit, after this
episode of rage. I became a little
jaded, and I was leaning on my chair with full force, so this guy wouldn’t be
able to push my chair up. This is just
an example of how we become when we are expecting something threatening to
happen. If I were to find myself in a
similar endeavor, I would try to center myself. I would not become defensive, because I know I will not handle
the situation well if I am jaded.
1) An Unfortunate Encounter With A Rude Police Officer
It is a simple fact that the court of law is
designed to intimidate, so why do the police officers have to be so
controversial? There are a lot of
friendly police officers out there, but the one’s that scare you, are the one’s
that you remember. I came out of this
episode with a different mentality about the police force. Before this encounter I was always cautious
about getting a speeding ticket, but I was never afraid of being intimidated by
a man with a gun. I perceived the cop
as a nemesis, and the cop perceived me as an enemy also. When there is a law, there is bound to be
conflict. I know I was being
irresponsible by going over the speed limit, but was it really necessary for
this cop to intimidate me, and make me feel like the victim.
The night I got my first speeding
ticket was the first Sunday night I had to work at Tower Records. My boss made me work until 1 o’clock on
Monday morning, even though he knew that I had school 7 hours later. My supervisor let me leave half an hour
early so I could get home early, but I still didn’t know how to handle the
situation. I sped home, because I was
stressed out, and I got pulled over.
Maybe the reason why the cop didn’t
seem friendly was because I was defensive.
It was my first job, and I was ‘over my head’ in schoolwork, so I
probably was rude to the officer. The
officer was only doing his job, and if I was rude to him, it is only normal for
him to act the same way towards me.
Everything depends on your mind state.
If I were friendly to the officer, he probably wouldn’t have been rude
to me.
2) Please Hold On You Judgment Mister Store
Clerk: I’m No Criminal
Hopefully, the
store clerk got the point I was trying to make. When you stereotype someone, you are placing a bias on the
outcome of the entire situation. If the
store clerk didn’t consider children to be criminals, he would not have hovered
over me while I was shopping. There was
an obvious bias. It may have looked
like we were planning our stakeout. If
my friend and me were bad people, we could have planned the situation that way. I could have told my friend to go and
purchase something, while I steal something valuable. I know he held something against the fact that we were teenagers,
because if it was an older man, I know he wouldn’t have watched him like a
hawk. Different generations act like
they don’t understand each other, when they actually do. It’s just the mentality about other cohorts
that throws everything off. It’s time
to start trusting the people that don’t belong to our cohorts.
3) Turbulence Before Take-Off
I can’t believe how egotistical this passenger was. Maybe the people that surround his life go out their way to make him happy. Maybe he was already frustrated, and displeased with something around him. I was staying within my boundaries, and he felt like letting his frustration out on me. I hate people like this; they don’t know how to be considerate. They are too sociable, and comfortable with everything, that they think they can cross someone else’s boundaries to make themselves happy. I was not about to become his little guinea pig at all, and I was not going to become any kind of scapegoat for his frustration. I am living my life, and no one has the right to cross the line that separates you and my peace and tranquility. If you want to be happy, you are going to find some other way to get it, because you are not transferring your unhappiness to me, because you have no right.
TEST
The Degree of
Rage that was Present in an Ambiguous Situation.
Everyone becomes defensive
at one time or another; but how often do you express your unhappiness towards
another human being? Recall a time in
your life where you felt anger brewing inside of you, but you didn’t know how
to express it. Take yourself back to
that actual time in your life, and use my survey to determine the amount of
Rage that was present.
Would you have, or did you:
1)
Mentally (objectively)
condemned this person.
2)
Verbally abuse him/her indirectly.
3)
Give the stink eye.
4)
Ignore this person if he/she
asks for your help.
5) Prevent this person from fulfill his/her desires.
6) Doing something in your power to make this person nervous.
7) Fantasize physical violence against this person.
8) Yelling at
this person.
9) Making a
physical or obscene gesture to this person.
10) Using your
fist to bash this person.
11) Finding a
weapon to use against this person.
12) Using the
weapon against this person.
13) Using the
weapon with intentions to kill this person.
Scale
for (the amount of violence your mind processed in an ambiguous situation.)
Items 1-4: No
intentions to become involved with this person because of different
reasons. You found these persons
actions’ to be rather coincidental.
Items 5-7:
Acting ambiguously. Your actions will
not be obvious. You felt a little
threatened by the situation, and you felt the need to subliminally
retaliate.
Items
8-10: Obvious actions that are rather
serious. This episode of rage was
pretty threatening to you, and you found the need to retaliate appropriately.
Items 11-13:
Extreme conditions. This person must
have really ticked you off. You should
never reach this state of action. A lot
of people think about killing others’, but it is just a thought. Under which conditions have you felt this
way?
Conclusion
I am not a very ragefull person. I am usually not very outspoken in social
situations, it’s not one of my more favorable traits, but it has its
qualities. The episodes of rage that I
explained would probably described as ‘moral stands.’ I usually try to understand all of my experiences. When I understand them, I learn from them,
and I have the option of changing my ways, if I am not happy with the way thing
are going in my life. I enjoyed doing
this project, because I finally got the chance to extract the ideas from out of
my head. It make a little more sense
when they are out of your head. It is
always easier to reformat your ideas into logical explanations when you can see
them in front of you. I really
understand the three episodes of rage well, and I have learned a great deal
about myself, and others.
References
1) Dr. James and Dr. Nahl, Road Rage and
Aggressive Driving: Steering Clear of Highway Warfare, Prometheus Books:
New York, 2000, page 81.
2) Kabat-Zinn, Jon, Wherever You Go There
You Are, Hyperion: New
York, 1994, page 218
LINKS