Can't everyone just get along

Bless you winter.

I've stopped springing out of bed early in the morning to catch the first rays of light. My usual spirited stride down the sidewalk has been replaced now with something that resembles more of a boardwalk shuffle.  I've even found myself putting off  rigorous activity. Yes. Walking to the TV and having to turn it on does count as physically straining. Yet all these are not atypical of the winter blahs.  Living in a city makes it harder to appreciate the white stuff. Salt, dirt, slush, and whatever ill-gotten creation is made when all 3 are combined with snow does not make it any more fun. Nor are the rude individuals who seem to make their prerogative in lifeto spread their unique quality of uncheer.

To use Rodney King's quote in a more colloquial fashion; ''why can't everyone just get along.'' Or maybe people are just angry ALL the time?  Certainly, we all have our inner demon but what qualifies us to dole out our frustration upon random strangers? Maybe its being at the wrong place at the wrong time. But maybe where you live is what makes is making you angry.  I had no knowledge, prior to reading this article from the Sunday Times, that ''queue rage'' existed - well certainly puts a name to what I went through while in queue to pay for groceries. FYI, I was on the receiving end (poo poo to those who could ever think I'd ever be mean to someone - well except for the people who take up copious space in the swimming pool, my former room mate, people who demonstrate general disregard for their job and to the people they service, and arrogant people):

When egos run high

We appear to be living in an age of rage. Earlier this week there seems to have been an incidence of “queue rage” in a supermarket during which a man was punched - and later died. The death raises the whole issue of apparently random acts of violence that are often the product of momentary losses of self-control.
...
Experts have said that in decades such as the 1960s and 1970s people tended to turn their frustration inwards, perhaps taking their anger out on their spouses behind closed doors. The tendency now is to turn it outwards: to externalise the problem to a complete stranger.


Indeed, in an age of indiscriminate self-valorisation, entitlement and conspicuous materialism, we all seem to be jonesing for some illusionary lifestyle.  It is in my opinion that this social malaise is attributable to the degradation of traditional social networks that scattered and de-sensitized self identity.  The wholesale digitisation of our daily routine has legitimized a whole industry based the need to hawk our presence over the internet; the number of ''hits'' generating indirect ''approval ratings''.  But more disturbing is the surfeit rise of videos and pictures, of a violent nature, willingly posted via the web jockeying for approval and personal conquest.  It was not too long ago when such acts were deemed inappropriate and yet now they are broadcast in popular television shows.  I admit that such shows have also achieved a level of audience awareness that may not have been achieved using other channels of communication.  In general, however, by scattering ourselves virtually, we are spreading ourselves and our identity too thinly in order to seek approval from many and in the process forgetting what makes us us.
...(to be continued)