You Are Not An Animal

Yahoo! News - Man Charged In Coffee Road Rage Case

Mastropieri admitted that he got steamed up and threw a cup of hot coffee at the other driver because of verbal abuse.

'I just happened to take a swig out of it right before it happened. It was in my hands, and flicked it like that,' he said.

But police claim, in this case of coffee road rage, Mastropieri was only a victim of a courteous driver.

They say he became angry when the other man actually allowed cars to merge ahead of him in heavy traffic on Route 290 East. Officials said Mastropieri and the other driver traded insults until Mastropieri's temper boiled over.

'I mean a guy can only take so much before, you know, it was a reactionary thing. I flung the coffee at him just to shut him up,' Mastropieri said."

This story kills me.

By saying that "it was a reactionary thing", Mastropieri is admitting that he has no control over his actions, just like an animal.

What seperates humans from animals is that we have the ability to control our emotions.

Unlike the dog, who response system says Meat => Salivate, the human's response system is Caught in Traffic => Choose Your Response.

I'd roll up the window and listen to music.

See, Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for more on this.