Dealbreaker

#2
What makes people angry and what happens when they are angry? Some people get angry a lot, about really minor things, and take it way too far. One such people group this applies to is super-villains. If your character resembles a green goblin or syndrome, I think it is pretty clear that is not so good.

First looking at the source and then the reaction.

I was in a gorgeous French restaurant in Barcelona and there was an obviously american couple about 4 tables down. Most of the restaurant was filled with rich suits and the odd fancy couple who were being polite in the dimly lit restaurant. It was calm until I heard a lady start freaking out about the food that just arrived. She refused to take it and said meat on a bone was for dogs. They brought it back differently and she got angry. Then they chopped it off the bone for a bunch of pieces and she still was angry. The chef came out to try to understand why and she still was livid talking about how things are done in america.

In this scenario who has more grounds to be angry? A lady who goes to a French restaurant in Spain wanting American boneless meat? Or the chef who makes wonderful food getting berated and disrespected this way? Well, I obviously side with the chef and it makes me angry to even write it up as a bystander! I was ashamed to be the only other north american around.

There is a long list of things that sets people off that is totally unnecessary and if I started writing a list I don’t think it would end. A lot of it revolves around the current scenario not being precisely perfect enough and being angry at those who make it imperfect. Maybe this is because most of their life is controlled in a manner which they are the authority and keep it in line to their liking, so when in an outside world they can’t deal with imperfections. I also believe some live in a state of perpetual distaste and anger, and the moments of happiness and pleasantries are the special cases for the select few. This is a pretty sad state of life in my opinion. Whatever the reason for anger is, it really turns me sour when unjustified.

While getting angry when nobody has made a mistake is just dumb period, this is a dealbreaker for another reason. I totally expect I will make mistakes and what type of reaction is appropriate? I could forget to call my wife when I am on a business trip which admittedly is bad. If she responds by smashing my computer with a hockey stick, then her escalated anger response is ridiculous. I believe the goal should be to improve the mistakes and imperfections for the future without causing excessive collateral damage. It is true that the factor of “wife might become berserk” could be motivating to fix the mistake and call home. However it is not a good motivator and I don’t want to be married to berserker, who would? When calm direct attempts to fix things fail, then anger seems more acceptable. But in all cases emotions need to be kept in check, and it takes some emotional maturity and will power to do so. Those who have no control when things don’t go their way should probably not get married, and with me it is easily a deal broken.

Aside: stuff that SHOULD make people angry, like sex trafficking, police corruption, slavery economics, …. should be infinitely more important than if someone screws up your coffee order or the parking space you want gets sneakily stolen.