I think there are so many facets to this discussion that it is difficult to know where to begin. I am not prepared at the moment to discuss violence in human history, but I would be willing to get the ball rolling discussig urban violence, or violence against women...

Some observations: that very contemporary phenomenon known as "road rage" fascinates me. The sorts of things that piss people off when they are behind the wheel are really rather hard to quantify or categorize because everyone is different. Some hate waiting for a slpit second after the light turns green; others hate being behind someone who doesn't use signals. What I really love is the suited business man in the huge SUV with kids in the back cussing a blue streak at someone who has just cut him off (or soem other perceived "wrong"). One wonders what sort of drivers his children will grow up to be...

But one interesting permutation of this phenomenon I have noticed in Boston (where pedestrians are not any better at obeying the rules than drivers, yet are much more at risk) is the tendency for drivers of cars to get upset at and violent towards the pedestrian they nearly run over in the street!

As for WHY road rage occurs; I think that our increasingly car-oriented culture is partly to blame, as opposed to the simple explanation that people are just getting more angry, impatient or ornery in general. Cars are now bigger and more state of the art than ever before. Suburban communities are not constructed so that people can easily walk to a corner store for a quart of milk, etc. Kids are no longer expected to walk to scholl if it's more than a couple of blocks (and sometimes not even that). Seems everyne is afraid the kid is gonna get snatched, or else the kid is too damn lazy to walk. I lived across the street from my elementary school walked a mile to my junior high, and 3/4 of a mile to my high school every day. Now, it seems like more kids get rides than take the bus or walk.

When I watch television for more than an hour on any major network, at least HALF the commercials are for cars. Cars are now made that include DVD players! This strikes me as not only nonsensical but dangerous. What's wrong with having the kids look out the window or listen to music or a book on tape in their headphones, if they're bored? Car culture means people think of their cars as fortresses. And I do think driving a lot is not healthy for the psyche. Let's not even mention the idiots who think it's advisable to talk on the phone while driving.

Because the car is seen as another body appendage, one feels empowered to behave as one will, even though these vehicles are subjet to rigorous laws of conduct for the drivers/owners. People also feel invincible or invulnerable in these fortresses, particularly the big bad-ass gaz-guzzling ones...so intimadating other drivers or pedestrians is almost a god-given right granted when one makes the first monthly payment. People scream, swear, gesticulate rudely, sing aloud and ruminate madly in their cars; as has been said, cars give you audio but not video privacy (the opposite is true of a tent while camping). For some individuals, allowing one's thought to wander as they will only succeeds in justifying their anti-social and in many cases quite harnful or dangerous behavior behind the wheel. I consider this an insidious kind of violence which most car-owners would not most likely agree with, because to them the car is simply an extension of their person...

I have not owned a car in years and I sure as hell don't miss it...I am very fortunate to live in a city where owning a car is almost a liability unless you are wealthy enough to have your own parking spot and pay Boston insurance premiums. Half my friends don't have them. We all have great "road rage" stories which, for us, usually means "crosswalk rage" perpetrated by drivers who have almost murdered us blithely while we were crossing the street...and usually in accordance with the nearest traffic light or stop sign.