Letter: Road rage is what we make it

William Glasser is a psychologist who believes that all behaviors are chosen. He believes that if you cut me off in traffic, you do not make me angry. Rather it is I who "choose to anger." Glasser says I must keep reminding myself that I cannot control what you do; I can only effectively control what I do.

Blaming you or road conditions for my rage comforts my ego, and my insurance company insists that I never admit any responsibility for an accident. But almost any accident has more than one cause. Schools of education tell us that learning is a change in behavior. If that is so, blaming you for my anger only dooms me to repeat that same behavior which caused my problem in the first place. I'd learn more if I were aware of my mistakes and made a better plan of action for the next time.

There are crazy drivers on the road and some of our traffic laws and road designs seem to have been put together by a committee, but these are realities of driving and not what Glasser would call "the Utopian picture in my mind of how things ought to be." If I want to survive out there, I'd better accept the conditions for what they are and plan for them. That's called "defensive driving." The other option is to choose a primitive response, which is only effective if I intend to go into combat.

JERRY BITTS

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