Is it really that cool, or whatever the kids are saying these days, to hurt someone else? It seems like everywhere I go there's someone desperate to prove something at the expense of another persons safety or health. How deep does the pit in you have to go before you find pride in harming other people? How little of life can you possibly see, when you're bragging about the ability to hurt someone? Is life really that bad? What's that like??

Maybe I just don't get it. I've always had a hard time really getting into the whole mindset. I've never tried to punch a kid for taking my place in line to the slide. I never broke a guys arm for calling me names. I've also never punched a pet screaming at it to respect me, or slapped my wife for talking or whatever it is people do now. I've never been so small that I needed someone to hurt. I've never been so empty that I had to fill the hole with someone's fear.

Or maybe I don't have it. I've never been "diagnosed" with "it's fine to just punch people because you don't bother to handle your problems like a man" syndrome. I never was screened for "how dare that guy throw a cigarette near me so now I have to shoot him" disorder. In fact, I've never even seen the literature for "he started it-tosis". Maybe it's ok if you beat the crap out of a crying child as long as a doctor gave you an excuse, err... "diagnosis".

It's starting to look like everyone wants it though. Certainly everyone has it. They all seem really proud of it. Some guy took my parking space so I shot him with one of the hundreds of guns I own. That will teach him to drive somewhere and park between lines. Oh yeah good job, you're the king of respect mountain. I wish I had even more guns. Guns make you a man.

Is everything now just a one up race to see who can do the most unnecessary amount of harm to another person? There are threads on this forum right now that read like a prank.
post 1: This guy spilled soda on my car so I ran him off the road and hit him a bunch.
post 2: I would have hit him until my arms got tired!
post 3: I would have cut hit leg tendons, but I'm more hardcore than most.
post 4: I'd have broke his back and stabbed his girlfriend, because I R more hardcore.
post 5: You should have shot him. I have a gun. Gun make fire.
post 6: I would have shot him and a random shopper at the store nearby because my gun in bigger.
post 7: I would have had to shoot up a hospital nursery with a bigger gun then all of you because I have sub human excuse syndrome.
post 8: I wish I had that, you're so hardcore.

I was recently part of a fight in a diner. I dropped my keys out of my pocket on the floor near one of these people. By the time I had turned, with my head down, to look at the floor, he had jumped up and started shouting "what's your problem?". He was one of these people. One hand furiously going in a pocket, the other flailing about his face like he saw a guy on television do once. I bent down, got my keys, and apologized. He said it was way too late for that, and that I obviously needed to be taught a lesson, or some sad cliche.

So, to many, I was given the choice of "it", whatever that means, being him or me. In this situation, I think most people would get excited. Because they would know they had an open excuse to hurt this man. They would only worry about what the cops would say when it was over. No one would wonder what set that guy off. No one would care that he was acting irrationally. Not a person would think, maybe there's something wrong.

And so I stood there thinking too. I thought there was no way this guy knows what he's doing. I thought I could see waves of fear from his face. I thought just maybe he's been afraid I'm one of those people that just wants to hurt him for no good reason, and he's just trying to get it over with. And finally I stood there and let him punch himself tired, then sat down and talked to the man. He had a story after all. I hope that guy is ok. Did I handle that wrong?