Real-Life Anger Stories Analysed

Yes, we've prepared some, thanks to the support of our readers!

Case 1. One word + one punch = €28.5k. Situation: Young man with girlfriend hails a taxi. Taxi stops but driver unprofessionally jokes and says “I wouldn’t have stopped for you, but she’s so good-looking I’ll certainly take her!” Whereupon young male protector, incensed, opens door, pulls out driver and punches him in the face. He was wearing a ring and it breaks the driver’s teeth.

Young man taken to court and has to pay damages or go to jail for 2-years suspended sentence (maybe serving only 3-4 months, as it seems he had no prior police record). Now he has a police record. Damages include new set of teeth, over 3-4 months of taxi driver’s sick leave, probably totalling some €16-18k, paid by his mother. For one punch in answer to a few spoken words.

Taxi driver: Hopefully, he will learn to be more professional – the “joke” was in bad taste.

Young man: Hopefully, he will learn not to become incensed, angry and violent.

Society: The social cost of this ignorance on both sides is exceedingly high and ridiculously cost-ineffective. 3k in attorneys, 1.5k in court fees, 18k in damages (dentist, unemployment benefit, etc.), police and court time estimate 6k, total €28.5k, for a few words. Costly on society, though, isn’t it? Imagine a 28.5k contribution to charity for the poor and needy instead. If both taxi driver and young man had been “better educated”. 

Case 2. Shouting on bus. Waste of time, harsh on the ears!

A city bus gets more noisy than usual. People in two rows of seats are shouting at each other. A lady and, probably, her father (granddad) are busy getting angry at a man sitting behind them, in his mid-thirties and with a 6-year old girl on his lap! The man is also angry. The shouts turn to insults and orders to shut up, which are bantered back and forth but no one gives up the argument. The whole bus can hear them. This continues for several city blocks. Granddad gets up, turns round and starts waving his hand in the air, threateningly. He is red with anger, vituperating, and may soon hit the man. The poor little child on her daddy’s lap is bug-eyed with fear. Finally the driver stops on a corner where he sees some policemen, and asks one of them to come on board to quell the argument. The policeman takes 2 minutes to calm them down and prohibit them from shouting any more. Various people get off, as the bus is just sitting there with the door open, and two women policeman stand at the door as backup. 

Whatever the “cause” of the argument, their uncivil behaviour put everyone off. We lost some time, people got stressed out, and only I as silent witness took note of this for the blog, proving that we need policemen – but better a policemen in our own mind, who will tell us when we’re behaving inconsiderately.

Case 3. “My T-shirt is haunting me”. Living in the past.

22-year old, named “X”, is in restaurant celebrating his mother’s partner’s birthday and sees an acquaintance, named “Y”, with a T-shirt he remembers as being his. A year ago he moved out of his mother’s rented place to get his own first apartment, but didn’t pick up all his things as he was told to before the keys were handed back to the owners. So his mother had “Y” come and help with the moving out and gave some bags of clothes to charity, including the T-shirt in question and others, which went to “Y”. Young man “X” suddenly gets awfully nervous and intense and goes on and on about how the T-shirt was his, he’s always losing his clothes, his mother doesn’t consider his feelings, she’s always giving things away, how would she like it if he threw her things away, etc. etc. Diners at the table know that this young man “X” has mood swings and can get stressed out, so they remain silent and patient. Young man finally gets up to leave, controlling himself sufficiently so as not to kick up a public scandal, but leaving abruptly on a bad note. The sight of the T-shirt was like a red flag to a bull, and all past explanations and admonitions of his mother were to no avail.

We witnessed a total waste of energy with all these negative waves of feeling about something in the past that had been explained already, but that the young man “X” was unwilling to accept. He dwelt on the past on a lovely sunny day and after a nice meal.

So… listen, you young people. When mummy and daddy put their foot down and say, “that’s that”, it means that’s that. Accept and obey. Stick to the present, and learn from the past only, don’t complain and whine about it. It’s unmanly, and discourteous to your mother, who gave birth to you! Don’t be haunted by the past!