Who would think this would be a viral hit?
When she was a teenager on the South Side of Chicago in the late 1990s, Donna Alexander fantasized about setting up a space where stressed-out people could relieve their tension in a safe, nonviolent way — by smashing mannequins, televisions, furniture and other objects. She was confident in her idea, but she wasn’t sure how to turn it into a business.
Finally, in the fall of 2008, and by then living in Dallas, Ms. Alexander began an experiment. She invited current and past co-workers to her garage to pulverize items she had collected from the curbs in her neighborhood. “I would play music on my laptop and just let them have at it,” she says. She charged $5. Soon, word of the stress-relief sessions spread throughout Dallas…
Over the next few years while she looked for a suitable location for the company, Ms. Alexander accrued a four-month waiting list. In December 2011, she quit her job as a marketing manager for a steakhouse to officially start the Anger Room in a 1,000-square-foot space in downtown Dallas.
The Anger Room charges $25 for five minutes of crushing printers, alarm clocks, glass cups, vases and the like. Prices rise to about $500 for custom room setups. The most expensive setup so far has been a faux retail store, replete with racks of clothing.
This angry amygdala sensation is the cognitive force that ultimately yields rolling shootouts on the highway, raids designed to wipe out neighborhoods that keep spilling out marauding savages, mass flashmob robberies of anyplace that has food or anything else of value for sale, vigilante justice, and all the other accoutrements of Apocalypse proper.
It sounds funny to postulate that, but right now we have free resources, delicious food, and total safety, and people are paying to go somewhere, and bust stuff up. In the future, we will have no food, no resources, and due to vastly reduced governmental expenditures on law enforcement, there will be no cost to simply blowing shit up around us as we cruise all over town to gather supplies and try to survive.
Oddly enough I expect it to be a vastly less stressful time than it was under Obama for eight years. With the right armament, I would even dare say, it might be blissful.
[…] Who would think this would be a viral hit? When she was a teenager on the South Side of Chicago in the late 1990s, Donna Alexander fantasized about setting up a continue […]
I initially misinterpreted your OP subject. I thought you were about to discuss the existence of what amount to “rubber rooms” in grade schools now, where (mainstreamed, usually “handicapped” and/or profoundly emotionally disturbed) students who go on Full Meltdown (top-of-lungs-screaming, throwing chairs, overturning desks, biting, kicking, stabbing with pencils, etc.) are placed after being dragged out of the classroom while classmates cower in a corner.
I kid you not. This is a real thing, it exists in grade school where my wife teaches, and there have been times where one such room was NOT ENOUGH. People largely have NO IDEA what is going on in schools today. Mainstreaming “Special Ed” kids is 1000 times more destructive than any New Math or Whole Language fad of the past.
In your opinion. Are people with short tempers r or K?
I would tend to think toward r, but they may be defective too. r/K are the two optimized ideals, but you will get amygdala defects as well.
In general, if you are adapted to stress, you will tend to have an amygdala that encounters hardship, and views it as normal. If you fail to get a promotion in life and pop, and throw a harmless tantrum, clearly you weren’t ready for the stress. If you pull out an AK and start firing because you didn’t get a promotion, you might be better described as full on defective.
Simpler maybe,but less stressfull?
Isuppose killing bad guys would relieve a lot of stress.
Donna Alexander fantasized about setting up a space where stressed-out people could relieve their tension in a safe, nonviolent way — by smashing mannequins, televisions, furniture and other objects.
interesting that Donna blatantly lies about what she’s doing; there’s nothing “non-violent” about smashing and destroying things.
she’s just pretending that her behavior is acceptable because she’s not directly attacking other ( likely too cowardly ) other people.
Interestingly I remember some of those “critical mass” bicycle flash mobs that used to be inflicted upon Manhattan in the 1990’s. The people involved always seemed to have an angry way about them, now I know that it is rage. They liked screwing up everyone’s day and being an aggressive nuisance. There were other flash mobs getting started and the local media was beginning to write about it them and the threat that the authorities saw as they just pop up.
The takeaway is that this desire to rage can be cloaked in or infiltrate into a group with a social agenda. Maybe that is why many of us dislike the bicycle crowd because subconsciously (K) we know that they are a threat, not opening up an honest debate about personal travel options. It seems as if the goal is to create chaos and disorder which sadly many cyclists seem to revel in. In fact they have a great defense mechanism when it comes to criticizing their road manners. They claim that critics just want to hold back the movement toward sustainable whatever BS.
cont.Funny how K works. Deep down inside I did not want to be associated with this group in the slightest way and set aside any thoughts of riding my bicycle. I remember hearing about their claim of abuse by the police and not wanting to get profiled; I have a great record and never an issue with police. Essentially I out grouped them.
I can see why police get abusive with them and I always side with the police when it comes to bicyclists, even cheering on. The K-sel officer sees them for what they are instinctively. Proof I did ride in my local NYC suburb one day and an officer was checking me out. I am riding respectfully and acknowledged him. When he stopped to chat with me he could instantly see I was like him, but the cyclist garb and activity did trigger his situational awareness and profiled me. I had to uphill battle to go past that initial evaluation. Tells a lot about how to show yourself when things go K. Now i realize that I was always taught this and it was called respectability. Don’t look like trouble in your person, car, activities, etc. Perceptually in group with fellow k’s.
Good advice. Soldiers wear uniforms for a reason.