Written By Sherwood Kohn
As more commuters drive to work, Carroll County, like the rest of the nation, suffers from an intensifying traffic problem (see “Road Cage”.
One aspect of the problem is another growing phenomenon-road rage-an alarming symptom of something broader and deeper.
According to a study commissioned by the American Automobile Association’s Foundation for Traffic Safety, there are reportedly up to 1,200 road rage-related deaths a year on U.S. highways.
“It is likely,” states the study, “that the cause of the road rage extends beyond the immediate incident … Studies of animal behavior have shown how rats and various primates can respond aggressively in response to overcrowding. It is reasonable to suggest that humans respond in a comparable manner.”
There are other factors, says the study, including territorial invasion, “failure to adhere to the rules of the road and ignoring signs,” unsafe driving and just plain grumpiness.
But let me suggest another factor: Disrespect. Not as individual behavior, but as a social phenomenon.
Back in the day, R & B singer Aretha Franklin’s most popular recording was “Respect.”
At the time-it was 1967-her message had gender and racial overtones: respect for women and for her race. But it resonated far beyond that. The society was just beginning to mutate into the “Me” generation, a prosperous era when people were starting to focus more on themselves and and their personal desires, a time when the seeds of greed were sown and “respect” was beginning to be something that gang members demanded of rivals.
Composer Leonard Bernstein had already articulated the tension in “West Side Story” (1961), but it would be another 30 years before the baby boomers actually internalized and personified the problem.
Now we are experiencing the fruits of the change: a self indulgence and self absorption that have resulted in an epidemic lack of respect; for ourselves, our fellow human beings and, inevitably, our children.
Over the past 10 years, we have seen denial of alarming climatic shifts, a major U.S. city abandoned in its hour of need, monumental corporate greed, reckless and disastrous speculation in the housing market, pervasive political corruption, soaring energy costs, deterioration of the national infrastructure, failure of our health care system, a staggering national debt, an unnecessary and debilitating war, the denigration of America’s image throughout the world, and the diminution of the middle class-all rooted in a classical lack of altruism: disrespect for one’s self and his fellow man.
There are a lot of fine people out there. We see them every day in Carroll County, devoting their lives to good works, giving money to charity, thinking about others rather than themselves.
But there are not enough, here or nationally. As we celebrate Valentine’s Day, the nation needs a rebirth of real love-selflessness-not just the pro forma words, “With all due respect.”
