I'm finding there's a lot of road rage in Brisbane. I'm in the inner city area and regularly travel between here and the Gold Coast, and I've noticed a definite road rage increase over the past 10 years or so.

Yes, the pace of life is extremely fast.

Yes, disciplining children is difficult given the 'anti-smacking' lobby and cessation of corporal punishment in schools.

However, economic necessity now dictates that in a large number of families, both parents work; and John Howard's legislative amendments also force single parents to work and/or study at least part-time.

Families more and more are forced into paying other people to care for their kids before and after school or in the school holidays.

Kids are seeing less of their parents than ever before in this country, compounding the discipline issue.

Parenting is not valued as a societal contribution any more leaving future adults less and less self-disciplined - it's an inevitable cycle of selfishness, greed and violence.

Don't blame parents; they can't discipline kids they hardly see!

RAGE ?

How come no one has mentioned RAGE BOY :)

http://www.snappedshot.com/archives/964-Professional-Protester,-Jihadi-style.html

Look him up.. he has become a kind of cult figure..

Rage boy parodies

http://www.snappedshot.com/archives/976-Islamic-Rage-Boy-Parody-Roundup.html

Steel.. CJ is (choke.. cough.. near death experience) right :)
you do show so much anger.. and it takes about one sentence b4 some of us tune out.

Argue your point... with good solid evidence..

If you let children get what they want..when they want..and never teach them the word 'no'.....then one day when they are BIG..and some bright spark says 'no'.....hmmm they might (and often do) snap.

There seems to be growing incidents of rage in our communities often directed at people who are complete strangers, say in the case of road rage.

Why the growth of rage is an interesting question and like most phenomena, there are probably a number of factors.

Maybe it is the fast paced lifestlye which affords little quality or quantity time to those closest to us, we are working longer hours and there is a growing unrest with the political processes that purport to represent us.

Perhaps the feeling of powerlessness is the cause of all this rage. Reminds me of the film "Falling Down" starring Michael Douglas whose growing frustrations and disappointment with 'society' resulted in ever-increasing incidents of rage.

Jenny Brockie's evenhandedness is refreshing in the media and I look forward to the program.

I get really bemused by the constant talk these days of 'Time Poor', and our 'Fast Paced' life.

I think it all falls under the umbrella of self obsession and vanity.

Seriously, nobody is time poor. Everyone has the same amount of hours in the day. Everybody has the choice on how they use them.

Sick of feeling busy? Downsize your life. Sell your house, pay off your mortgage, set your life up so you can walk to work.

Want lots and lots of free time? Don't have children. Or learn to enjoy time with your children so you don't see it as work.

Don't want to work? Be a bum.
Don't want to clean the house? Don't.

Obviously those who earn more can be not as time poor and still have a better standard of living. But it's all relative and the majority of people have a lot more choices than they realise.

A hell of a lot of people are stressed and busy and time poor because they choose to be. Vanity and Envy make them work their life away looking to compete with others. Then they say they are stressed and time poor, and have rage attacks.

PolyBOAZ, I don't care too much if you or anyone else tunes out. If your comfort is of greater importance to you than the content of what that person may be trying to express, then that's your choice.

Just remember, that often anger is justified (and sometimes not, as some people can be mistaken). Someone for example may tell you something that would otherwise have saved your life, had you not ignored it by expressing irritation at their anger and screening the remainder of what they said out. Their anger may be attributed to their heightened state of urgency, or because they have been gravely injured. I appreciate it can be annoying though ;)