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I guess I would be considered a "sidewalk rager", although rage is a very strong word since I've never risen to the level of physical contact or even verbal con
by defen 16y ago
I guess I would be considered a "sidewalk rager", although rage is a very strong word since I've never risen to the level of physical contact or even verbal confrontation - perhaps exasperation would be a better word. It's not limited to sidewalk-walking; it also applies to city driving.
In my experience (having lived in San Francisco and New York) there are two types of people who trigger this:
1) People who are so self-absorbed that it doesn't even appear to register in their minds that there are actually other people in the city or on the road. Into this group would fall some cell-phone users, arrogant business-types, stroller-pushers, escalator-blockers, etc.
2) People who feel powerless in their own lives, and intentionally cause grief as a passive-aggressive way of asserting dominance over others without really breaking the law. Typically urban poor and out-of-town youths.
Lest anyone get the wrong idea, I don't think everyone needs to have the same conception of city etiquette as I do. I'm just describing one of the (little) drawbacks to living in a crowded city for someone with my personality.
- alexqgb 16y agoStated beautifully. The issue cited in the paper doesn't seem to be "rage", which seems fairly uncommon. Instead, it seems to address common exasperation with the congenitally (and deliberately?) witless, with a few extremes thrown in for good effect. It would be different if the author acknowledged that the people triggering exasperation were, in fact, behaving badly. Instead, he seems to dismiss any sense of socially cohesive conduct as something mysterious, arbitrary, and possibly dangerous. It's easy to read the whole thing as a passive-aggressive defense of passive-aggressive jerks. The one in a million who actually go ballistic are outliers. The PA types who trigger them - though a minority - are exponentially more common, and an irritation for everybody.
- teyc 16y agoI don't think this is the author's focus. He is trying to convey that there is a better way rather than being easily exasperated because the negativity wastes the limited life we each have. The sense of exasperation arises out of a state of mind that is easily disturbed and ruffled. Whatever skills one can gain from being 'at one' with the crowd will translate into the rest of their lives, and improve the relationship with their loved ones.