The Aggression Tax

From the wholly unscientific observation of my daily commute, I find with disproportionate frequency pickup trucks the most likely candidate to barrel around me in virtually any traffic scenario. Naturally, this bald-faced show of aggression awakens my primal nature, thus calling for a reciprocal horn blast or equally ineffective retaliatory tailgate maneuver. In these moments of heightened awareness and naked nerves, I choose to tamp down these limbic impulses and take a moment to reflect on the cost of aggression.

As trucks are not known for their fuel efficiency, even under optimal circumstances, any rapid acceleration would only serve to worsen the financial impact. Still, it seems that the vehicle is merely an outward expression of internal strife made manifest in the impatient and erratic behavior. For the driver, the cost goes well beyond the “pain at the pump” and taxes their peace of mind and spiritual well being. It occurs to me that this overt display of unhappiness is present elsewhere in our daily lives, that perhaps even now we see in these protests and riots, an expression of some latent species-wide discontent only seems exasperated when met with an equal or escalated show of force.

There in the daily race to the office or job site, in the chaos of the hunt, the anxious and unhappy among us mercilessly whip their mounts into a frenzy while I tacitly concede my position resigned in the knowledge that the real cost of aggression is exacting a far higher toll than I could ever myself muster.