Just Plane Ridiculous?

Seems like there is a story a day in the news which describes some act of hostility, impatience or hatred that shows a side of human behavior that is worrisome with respect to where we are going as a species. A man was forcibly dragged from a commercial flight because he refused to de-plane when he was told he had to give up his seat so that a flight crew could make their next flight. In forcibly removing the passenger, the passenger was physically injured.

Most of us want less aggravation in our lives but conflict is inevitable so we cannot eliminate aggravation altogether. We do, however, possess the ability to mitigate how much conflict might continue to effect us beyond the moment of disagreement. When you don't possess that ability, you are doomed to exaggerate that disagreement to the point where it can easily become your whole life -- aggravation which could have been controlled, now becomes all consuming. I wasn't there, so I can be criticized for presuming there were no attempts to de-escalate but I do find it hard to resist the temptation to say that cooler heads might have produced a better outcome.

For me, what can be learned from this story is simple: It's important for people to learn how to de-escalate their conflicts if they don't want to live inside those conflicts. The need to "win the argument" right then and there can lead to a major diversion from whatever it is that satisfies you in life. For the people who roughed the passenger up, they might not have realized that there are plenty of "little people" that can and will take you down. For the person who chooses "fighting for their rights" to prove a point -- you might get the justice you deserve, but by the same token you could have gotten hurt or even killed in the process. Sometimes that fight is worth that risk -- but over a travel delay? There's got to be a better way for people to solve their disagreements.

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