You Won The Lottery! Now Back the F*** Off!

Why Are You So Angry?

In a previous post I commented on the sheer numbers of seemingly unemployed (or barely employed) people in my neck of the woods.

As an offshoot of that demographic, I’d like to take a moment if I may to rant about how so many of those people are given to Road (and other) Rage.

To be fair, I give a pass to the obvious offenders:  teenagers, angry rich white men, disenfranchised minorities, etc.  They’ve got their own reasons for being assholes that don’t require much speculation  (hormones, midlife crises, racial injustice, etc.).  I just continue on and try to ignore it.

But what is it with middle-class, obviously unemployed white women?  Why are they so angry?  As far as I can tell, there’s no legitimate excuse.

I try not to lose my cool with these bitches, but it’s hard.

A small sampling would include:  the snarky comments while jockeying shopping carts at the grocery store, shooting dagger-ish looks when I dare to scoot past them at the TJMaxx shoe rack, the barely-veiled impatience while in line at the ATM… the list goes on.

And then there’s the most heinous of all offenses:  daring to only drive 5 mph over the speed limit into the hairpin curve by the local library.  That seems to incite sheer rage.

Why?!

Why the anger over such mundane and insignificant life events that everybody deals with on a daily basis?  Aren’t there more important things to get upset about?

In every one of these situations I want to look them straight in the eye and demand an answer:

YOU WON THE LOTTERY!! 

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORK!!

WHY THE F#CK ARE YOU SO PISSED OFF AT THE WORLD?!

My husband’s theory is that they’ve realized too late that their existences are essentially meaningless.  The kids are old enough not to need them anymore, their husbands and working friends are out there successfully navigating the corporate world, the same corporate world that has no use for them after fifteen or so years of not working.  They’re essentially reduced to being housekeepers and/or trophy wives with no real purpose in life.

That may be true, but in my book that neither excuses nor fully explains such outright asshole-ish behavior.  Feel free to add your two cents.