Overreaction

Action – reaction – inaction – overreaction

We are offered with three basic choices in response to any given event. Many of use will react appropriately to any situation and move on with our lives. A common occurrence we can all relate to is driving down the interstate and fighting traffic when someone cuts us off intentionally or unintentionally. Most of us will react by thinking or saying something negative about the habits of that driver. The insanely calm among us will fail to react and will treat it as unavoidable part of the drive. Some will overreact – they will tailgate the driver or worse yet, chase them and threaten or use physical violence against the driver that offended them.

What gives me concern that we, as a nation and as a race, have begun to overreact more often than not. In the past month there have been a series of shootings that have left high school students dead in South Chicago. Most of these incidents were gang related and were caused by pride. If this person belongs to one gang and I belong to another they are my sworn enemy because I am proud of my gang. Members of the gangs are willing to kill to show their pride regardless of the initial action. If they were to egg cars randomly and yours was hit the proper response would be to wash it off and possibly call in a complaint to the police. The choice for inaction lead to washing off the vehicle and continuing on with their lives. Instead of the first two choices we saw overreaction that brought as violence against those who initially engaged in the vandalism.

In Iraq overreaction is seen on a daily basis. Sectarian violence exists because of the pride one sect of Islam feels for their beliefs. Instead of keeping their beliefs and sharing with those who are willing they instead kill fellow Iraqis.

The cause of the Iraq war has been debated ad nauseum. Some believe it was retribution for the initial gulf war, others believe it was because of perceived or existing stocks of WMD, others believed it was because of ties to terrorist organizations. Did we, as a nation, overreact? The UN put out a series of resolutions that allowed us to participate in Northern and Southern watch and also prohibited Iraq from owning, acquiring, or researching WMD. The popular belief at the time was that Saddam owned WMD and was willing to use them against us or Iraqis or would sell them to an organization that would. Did we overreact? Was a preemptive strike justified in order to removed the perceived or actual threat against us?

Overreaction can even strike your wallet. Studies have been conducted on drivers that drive like jerks (rabbit starts and quick stops). They found that on a thirty minute drive these individuals only saved themselves on average 40 seconds of time. In the process of aggressive driving they also used 20% more fuel. They wanted to get to their destination as quickly as possible and decided that aggressive driving would allow them to reach their goal with greater speed. It did, and it did so at a great cost – literally. These drivers can greatly affect traffic patterns by their erratic driving. Have you ever been driving down the interstate to see traffic dramatically slow and then pick up a few miles later without explanation? Someone, at some point in the line, rapidly slowed down causing a chain reaction. Hours later these affects could be seen. The appropriate action would have been to drive with the flow of traffic while maintaining an adequate distance in between them and the cars around them. By maintaining a smaller distance and slamming on the brakes they created a jam. Overreaction proved to be the poorest choice.

Why do we overreact? Are we all that impatient? Do we feel that hurried or harassed that we feel that only a significant reaction is the appropriate one? Do we shy away from inaction as it would make us appear weak? Do any of us turn the proverbial cheek?

I know that I have been prone to overreaction. For example, if someone were to throw a water balloon at me I would attempt to hijack a fire hydrant in retaliation. My reasons – pride – not wanting to be bothered again – impatience. All poor reasons when you look at the whole picture. You, we, I should all attempt to limit our reactions so that we react appropriately. In doing so, we reduce the stress in our lives. We reduce the stress of the people around us. We’re going to make this world, a world that we are forced to share, a better place.

*this post was written on an idea and was simply written for the joy of writing – and seeing what rabbit trails I would follow – hope you enjoyed reading it*