Road Rage – a path to self-destruction and possibly ending sitting the night in jail

Road Rage – a path to self-destruction and possibly ending sitting the night in jail

Traffic congestion may be a contributing factor to driver frustration and road rage. Road rage is aggressive or angry behavior by a driver of an automobile or other road vehicle. Such behavior might include rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats. Today, unlike the days of yesteryear, aggressive drivers have turned our city streets and freeways into free-for-all battle zones or gladiator pits. 

One driver pitted against the other for reasons beyond common sense. Armed with guns, and pepper spray to eggs and water bottles, there is no holds barred for this new kind of road rage as every driver involved delves themselves into a ‘high-noon’ situation with other drivers and confront cops aggressively when they try to intervene or restore order. 

An epidemic growing still into pandemic proportions, the rage seems to becoming so serious, laws are being changed to address these destructive behaviors. Every year the rate of incidents climb us as is the count of injuries, assaults and homicides related to such dangerous behaviors out in our streets and freeways. However, this fury has shown no signs of subsiding or slowing down any time soon. 

Road rage can be any encounter between drivers versus other drivers but is extended to passengers, mere spectators, bicyclist, and other individuals who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Road rage can be a moving violation, a parking lot incident where the vehicle is vandalized or damaged, a stalking situation where someone is followed home and then victimized or assaulted. 

The list is too long to cover all but the fact remains, road rage is happening and its real. Renamed from the tag given previously, ‘aggressive driving’ no longer takes the perception by the media as ‘road rage’ does. What has appeared is an attitude of being a ‘vigilante behavior’ to make a wrong right with another wrongful act with all involved being wrong in the letter of the law. 

This madness to inflict some kind of retribution or punish others is driving is growing at exponentially magnitudes but AAA or the highway agencies in various states are not tracking this as a data report. Evidence shows self-destructiveness in many ways of losing self-control and usually starts with ‘hand signals or gestures’ that escalates into physical violence or even shooting at each other. 

This kind of ‘intimidatory driving’ starts as verbal abuse and escalates quickly. Attacks on people and vehicles are being reported whereas before, none such events were logged down by any public safety agency or AAA support groups. Some conflicts are caused by erratic or reckless driving given the offended party an opportunity to express their dislike for these driving practices by flipping the ‘bird’ to another person.

Secondly, there could be an encounter of the worse kind, when decals, signs or other visible preference over a sport or team initiates conflict while on the road. Lane changing, speeding and excessive tailgating all contribute to the anger. 

This appears to be more of a personality trait than a crime but nevertheless, people are getting hurt or killed by people motivated to be aggressive and inflict some kind of punishment to the others. 

Expressing anger while behind the steering wheel is normal. What is abnormal is when it goes beyond the screaming, yelling, muttering or stuttering to tell the other person what they are thinking and initiating more aggressive behaviors. It comes down to lack of proper social functioning skills and lack of coping with the environment they are driving in. 

Wikipedia identifies several issues that manifest road rage. They are:

·         Generally aggressive driving, including sudden acceleration, braking, and close tailgating

·         Cutting others off in a lane, or deliberately preventing someone from merging

·         Chasing other motorists

·         Flashing lights and/or sounding the horn excessively

·         Yelling or exhibiting disruptive behavior at roadside establishments

·         Driving at high speeds in the median of a highway to terrify drivers in both lanes\

·         Rude gestures (such as "the finger"

·         Shouting verbal abuses or threats or intentionally causing a collision between vehicles

·         Hitting other vehicles or hitting or assaulting other motorists, their passengers, cyclists, or pedestrians

·         Exiting the car to attempt to start confrontations, including striking other vehicles with an object

·         Threatening to use or using a firearm or other deadly weapon

·         Throwing projectiles from a moving vehicle with the intent of damaging other vehicle

Sometimes this lack of control is described as "basically a maladaptive reaction to an identifiable psycho-social stressor that interferes with social functioning which may include sharing the roadway with another driver. One may feel misunderstood and claim dominance other the other by expressing anger at another driver.

Road rage can be controlled. Aggressive drivers are under better control than drunk drivers and thus have the capabilities to correct their behaviors before it inflicts too much damage or calculated embarrassment or humiliation. It is fair to say that road rage has become our number one fear rather than drunk drivers on the streets. 

It is also likely true that there is now an epidemic out there of running red lights creating much of the conflict. Installing red light cameras can solve some of these problems but the others are left up between driver versus drivers as they compete for their share of the roadway they are occupying and taking control of one way or another.

A less traveled road

A less traveled road  We all know how to avoid making decisions and walking away from our problems. Confrontation is such an ugly thing to deal with thus we solve our problems by walking away and never looking back.  Unfortunately, walking away has a very high price you pay. It doesn’t do anything for your self-understanding and destroys self-esteem, confidence and changes in your life. In fact, it does quite the opposite and hampers your ability to grow mentally and spiritually. Thus it is best to confront and solve your problems so you can travel the road less traveled. Walking alone can be beneficial as is walking in a group if that group understands you and has your best interest in mind.  Walking the road less traveled will mean confrontation and suffering is at hand and those near you, must try to be patient and understand you. This relationship must be reciprocal and beneficial to grow positivity and better spirits.  Compatibility, independence, and learning to distinguish the differences is important is solving our problems. Self-understanding is the key to recognizing your own abilities and power. It must allow you to deal with and understand your own ideas, vision and insights or dreams. It is all relevant to your personal, mental and spiritual growth. Learning how to deal with blame, forgiveness, love and self-love are important elements of your life. Knowing yourself is more important than we think it is as it is the core value of who we are. It is an instrumental and fundamental part of growing up so we need to do it gradually and deliberately pay attention to how we solve our problems.  Confrontation, self-discovery and a close examination of our complexities in our own lives gives us the tools to be better decision makers down the road. This journey is an enlightening opportunity to grow in belief and in spirit.  Believe in yourself but be prepared for the paradoxical nature of your belief and your life’s experiences. Nothing is what it appears to be and what appears to be may not be the reality you are facing.  Know the differences between good and evil, know which road to take. The high road can lead to overcoming your own narcissism and putting your perspectives in focus as you deal with matters of important all your life.  Coming to terms with life and death, love and sadness, loved and being love, hate and being hated, is living with a paradox we all have to face sometime in our lives. The road less traveled deals with choices we make every day personally and professionally. The ethical choices we make affects you, me and all those around you.  Life’s choices on making productive patterns work instead of destruction in your life. Avoid the patterns of self-absorption, callousness, manipulation and becoming too materialistic in nature you become entrenched in a road that demonstrated routine behaviors we do not recognize as being civil or kind, but rather dramatic and unwelcomed to many who see this as an ugliness in character. Focus on your journey for better experiences. Share with others what you have been blessed with or learned. Participate in community building and joining together minds, energies, creativity and productive processes which may overcome our prejudices, our transcending differences of opinions and learn to accept love ourselves as well as each other.  Never wander off this path for the path is different than the journey. Staying on the less traveled road is taking the right road. The high road and the moral road. It is connected to life that allows us to achieve a wholeness in successes, maturity and spiritual growth in our life.

Dragons in a Modern World

Is Correctional Leadership Timeless?

In most professions, leadership is timeless. The reason I say this is because leadership characteristics are linked to individuals and not businesses or organizational assets. This suggests that those persons demonstrating open-mindedness, great work skill sets, experience and other positive attributes in the workplace, may already in possession of those needed leadership qualities as they enter the work force.
It is true, however, that with time, they could learn to further improve their personality and character traits to make them better leaders. This leads me to believe that if you know yourself better, and if you have a strong self-awareness of your own skill set and leadership values and qualities, plus have the knowledge required or relevant to do the job, then leadership is timeless. It is perpetual in nature and goes with you no matter where you go.
It also leads me to believe that leadership is timeless under certain conditions such as working in a lead position in law enforcement or corrections. These jobs existed over a very long period of time, steady and sustained in necessities to be filled and performed and has also demonstrated an ability to keep up with the technology of today compared to the work habits of yesterday.
There may be some technical perspectives that need to be enhanced or re-trained but basically, if you have the knowledge to do the job, you can be trained, developed or mentored into an advanced role if you have the skill set and characteristics for such challenges in leadership roles. In other words, in every job, there is a constant need to learn new work related skill sets no matter where you work or what you do.
This is what keeps leadership fresh, challenging and non-repetitious in nature. Some say leadership is a balanced position. It has to serve with an effect that is like an equilibrium in the workplace. Leadership is a combination of psychology and business knowledge. Basic knowledge of the human behavioral spectrum is a desired leadership requirement as well as the specific context knowledge of the professional trade is essential.
This concept explains why different leaders are called for different purposes or agendas throughout the span of the organizational cycles. This requires an awareness agenda mindset and if this is boosted by an inner drive of their self-awareness and workplace structural understandings, leaders need to know themselves better in order to be effective at their roles to lead others.
This would then serve the organization, the agency or the profession as a core value for sound leadership over time and adjust accordingly making it timeless yet productive in nature and practical applications.
This role would be greatly enhanced by the ownership of self-motivational process of being inspirational, visionary and the ability to change with external forces that are applied in every industry throughout time and technology improvements.
Leadership characteristics would be constant in one core value but with the added drive and ability to keep up with the changes around them would be flexible and agile in nature to be competitive as a leader, participative in decision making roles and setting new agendas.
After all is said, leadership is about learning as well as it is in leading others into new ideas, improved productivity and performance as well as impacting or producing better organizational services or increased profits. This requires a keen awareness of what is going on around you and outside the organization you work for.
It is a perpetual process of learning, observing technological patterns, and visionary proposals to integrate changes into the organization in a timeless manner. It takes a particular skill to become aware of a change in the cycles outside the work place. It is best explained as a positive attribute possessed individually and someone who knows and recognizes any significant or instrumental change is necessary and is applicable and necessary for future growth at different times of this leadership cycle.
This requires different types of leader for different times of the organizational lifespan cycle. It requires knowing who is right for which circumstances at hand. Commonly, these people are often referred to as “the successor” for better or improved teamwork, and collaborative efforts in the company etc.
This goes back to what types of people the organization invests their time and money on as well as selecting skills, characteristics and knowledge. It takes money to hire such individuals and this cannot be created by some accident. It must be planned of the organization will fail in their ability to compete, sustain or change with the industry selected.
In order to make a successful business transition or transformation, leaders must possess character traits that are positive in nature and encompass humility, openness, effective listening skills and a strong willingness to challenge themselves when questions are posed or discussed to deliver that equilibrium required to balance the workplace and its stability.
Such a logical and rational approach could protect future investments in the industry and offer a more than reasonable level of invincibility, invulnerability and infallible performance and services as required by their own strategic plan or mission statements requiring compliance to specific standards.
Certainly, we agree that public safety has specific demands and requirements by statutory and moral obligations as a public service entity protecting the communities as well as individuals.
This kind of an approach also indicates the need for the organization to become fluid, more open to change and consider various or different kinds of leadership candidates that are willing and able to step up to environmental changes as the agenda changes on the outside and the adjustments are required on the inside of the business.