What causes more stress in the US? January 2009

In Taming the Anger Monster, Anne Davidson brings multiple examples centering on the theme of angry society. Her aim is to show the anger with American people; she talks about what causes it, what the results are and how to deal with it. Taming the Anger Monster starts with the story of Laura Houser; we meet her, while driving with her mother, as a reckless girl reacting angrily to another man’s driving. Leading to a few examples of what causes anger. Moreover, Anne asks and responds to the question of “why are we so angry?” (Davidson, P.2), and deals with three main points leading to angry behavior; time, technology and tension. Yet, she adds ways of how to deal with it; common sense and patience. “Shouting, fuming or learning on the car horn won’t make traffic begin to flow.” (Davidson, P.5) First of all, Anne’s examples of Laura Houser and the super market shopper reacting angrily to some silly situation is very true in our daily lives. Laura acted angrily because the guy a head of her was looking at a map and didn’t move right away. (Davidson, P.2) This is very real. Now a day most drives drive with the attitude of an ambulance man, meaning always in a hurry. That is what caused Laura to act so foolishly; she “automatically yelled” (Davidson, P2) as if her mother was dying in the car and she needed so urgently to take her to the hospital. Nevertheless, “any emotional arousal will simmer down if you just wait long enough”. (Davidson, P. 5) Patience and common sense are a key to anger. Laura yelling her head off at the man did not make her feel any better, her mom responded “well, I guess you’ve been living in the city for too long.” Laura realized for such a non sense reason “her anger was out of control” (Davidson, P.2). Although, I was disappointed at the three arguments Anne included in her report about causing anger; time, technology and tension. She uses these three components in her report to blame the reaction of the American people. (Davidson, P.2) She says, “Americans work longer hours and are rewarded with less vacation time than people in any other industrial society.” Yes, I agree with her statement, but she is forgetting Americans are the most people obsessed with work and bank over drafts. She says “We are time-challenged and just plain tired- and tired people are cranky people” (Davidson, P.3) I have to say this is a typical American excuse. Allow me to say; excuses like time, technology, and tension are not good enough to be the major causes for anger. What about countries who have physical and mental tiredness, tension, bad drivers, uneducated people, careless society. Does that mean they will be eating each other a live? Wouldn’t family stress cause stronger tension than technology and time? “Taming the anger Monster” is a readable report. Anne introduces anger reactions with the American people and tries to work through what causes it. She could have used stronger reasons, other than time, technology and tension to actually make us live the tension of the American people.