Road Rage: The Illusion of Power and a Short Fuse
Hmmm, if you’re mad at the world, does that mean the rest of us should get out of your way so you can do what you please when you please?
Most of us have seen examples of road rage. I found out recently that it is not exclusive to roads and highways. It can happen in someplace as innocuous as a plaza parking lot.
Last Saturday morning, in a relaxed weekend state of mind, I pulled into a local plaza for a quick stop at the pharmacy. As I turned down a row to find a parking spot, a black SUV reversed out of a spot rather recklessly and clearly without checking to see if the way was clear.
My weekend state of mind quickly dissolved. I had only a few seconds to react. I hit the horn to alert the driver and quickly swerved. Fortune smiled on me as I managed to avert the collision. I muttered a few obscenities, continued down the row and found a parking spot.
As I stepped out of my car, the SUV accelerated up the row and swung into the spot beside me. A woman jumped out, came around her vehicle and began to shout at me.
Her: What’s the matter with you!? You didn’t see me backing out!
Me: You didn’t see me coming? I had the right of way.
Her: I had the right of way! I was backing out!
I quickly concluded there was nothing to be gained from arguing with her. I waved her off and continued walking. Her parting remark: Fucking white people! I did not mention the race of the driver because to me it was irrelevant. Regrettably, the same could not be said of her.
It occurred to me that she was lucky that I was the target of her ire. I am a pacifist and chose to turn the other cheek. If the person she lashed out at was someone with the same short fuse as her, she would probably have awakened in the hospital a few hours later – her last recollection being the moment a fist connected with her jaw.
As I gained some perspective later in the day, I realized that I should feel sorry for the woman rather than harbour resentment. Clearly, she is in a bad place in her life as anger is her default emotion. She is also living with a false sense of entitlement that people should get out of her way so she can do as she pleases.
There is also the race issue. Perhaps she has faced discrimination and has festering resentment. But it may also be that she is just mad at the world and everyone in it and that influences how she interprets what happens to her.
Unfortunately, this woman is an accident waiting to happen, literally and figuratively. She is the proverbial mad bull in a china shop. Eventually everything will come crashing down around her as hell breaks loose.
The morale of the story: Road rage is more a symptom than a condition. Being in a rolling hunk of metal gives the illusion of power which brings out the worst in people who are already living on the edge. Hopefully my encounter is the closest I will ever come to being a victim of it.
~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhnced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .
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