The Present and Future Rage Wave

Conversation with a School Teacher

A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with a school teacher who will be retiring this year. She teaches the younger grades. I don’t want to reveal too much about her to protect her identity. During our conversation, I asked her about the challenges of teaching online during the pandemic lockdowns. She admitted that teaching online and keeping kids motivated was pretty challenging.

I then asked her about the potential long-term effects of the pandemic on students in general. She responded. “One-third of students will be fine. They never fell behind and were able to stay the course. Another one-third of the students fell behind but are catching up.”

The last one-third? “They are so far behind academically and socially that they will never catch up.”

Let me say that this teacher is not prone to hyperbole or exaggeration. I find this statement to be credible. Further, word has gotten back to this teacher about older students acting out in various ways against their teachers.

One wonders about the future of the one-third that has fallen behind academically and socially. What does it mean for society in general? Will crime rates rise? Will there be a rage wave coming in the future? I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s coming. In some respects, it’s already here, as discussed below.

I’ll have to dig into this further and see if there are any emerging trends or statistics among this generation.

Toronto Swarm Case

I have previously written about the highly publicized swarm attack in downtown Toronto. Some have debated whether it’s a one-off occurrence or a sign of troubling trends among the younger generation. I lean toward the latter. A Toronto Star reporter tracking the case recently wrote a column updating the readers on this case. Not much was revealed.

However, she did say the following:

This past year has also seen a troubling rise in youth violence — a concerning trend that includes the girls and their alleged crime.

In November, Statistics Canada released new data analysis showing 90 young people had been arrested for homicide across Canada in 2022 — a five-decade high. Toronto was home to the biggest concentration of accused, thanks in part to the girl swarm case.

A documented rise in violence at school has also left parents, teachers and advocates struggling to stave off crisis.

It’s one thing to read about the swarm case in various media outlets. It’s another thing to hear firsthand from a school teacher concerned about the future of many students. As noted, emerging statistics do not bode well.

It is fair to say that the fallout from the pandemic-related lockdowns will likely have long-lasting consequences.

Study on Aggressive Drivers

A recent New York Times article titled, “Why Are American Drivers So Deadly?” caught my eye. The observations in this article align with my observations of the aggressive driving that has worsened in the post-pandemic era. In particular, I have noticed incredibly dangerous and aggressive driving on the 401, the central expressway through the Toronto area.

I have asked several friends if they have seen the same thing. Without hesitation, they all say “Yes.” Further, we agree and suspect that it’s related to the pandemic. It’s as if folks are acting out on the highways.

Knock on wood: I have not witnessed any car accident resulting from reckless driving on the 401. However, I have seen multiple instances of aggressive and reckless driving on that expressway, similar to the abovementioned video. It appears to me that some drivers are just rage-driving.

Furthermore, it has appeared to be much more prevalent since the pandemic. My friends and family believe that it is related to the pandemic.

The above article provides some clues and reinforces what I’ve suspected.

In 2020, as Covid-19 rattled through the state, law enforcement and E.M.T. workers began reporting a large increase in road-related injuries, despite the lockdowns and the relative emptiness of the streets; in 2021, the state recorded 385 fatalities, a 15-year high. The following year was hardly much better, with 382 fatal crashes and a 114 percent increase in the number of cyclists killed on the road.

Furthermore,

The cause was easy enough to identify: Data parsed by Kuhls and her colleagues showed that drivers were speeding more, on highways and on surface streets, and plowing through intersections with an alarming frequency. Conversely, seatbelt use was down, resulting in thousands of injuries to unrestrained drivers and passengers. After a decade of steady decline, intoxicated-driving arrests had rebounded to near historic highs.

And,

In the fall of 2022, Kuhls attended the annual meeting of the Governors Highway Safety Organization, in Louisville, Ky. In conversations with other researchers, she learned that the same behavioral patterns she had observed back in Nevada were playing out in nearly every state in the country, often at record-shattering scale. From 2020 to 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has since calculated, the number of crashes in the United States soared 16 percent, to more than six million, or roughly 16,500 wrecks a day. The fatality figures were somehow even worse: In 2021, 42,939 Americans died in car crashes, the highest toll in a decade and a half. Of those deaths, a sizable portion involved intoxicated or unrestrained drivers or vehicles traveling well in excess of local speed limits.

One theory:

“Drivers were frustrated,” says Kuhls, now a professor of surgery at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at U.N.L.V. and chief of trauma at an affiliated public hospital. “My own theory is that whatever personal conflicts they had were exacerbated because they’d been sheltering in place during Covid. So they’d get on the road having self-medicated with drugs or alcohol, or they’d just be incredibly reckless.”

Unless I am persuaded to the contrary by another theory, I think that this makes sense.

In any case, the pandemic appears to be the connecting factor in all three topics discussed above. Complicating things further is the current inflation and interest rate environment pushing many families to the breaking point. Then there’s the fentanyl and opioid crisis on top of all this. Hoo boy.

It’s anyone’s guess as to how things will play out in the years ahead. I’d be interested in any sociological study that delves into the impact on the young generation. Specifically, I’d like to see research indicating the possibility of a future rage wave.

As I’ve argued before, too many in the self-defence community focus too much on personal issues and not enough on the big picture. It behooves us to look at the larger picture and prepare accordingly.

What might we expect in the future as a consequence of the pandemic? There are various scenarios, from the best case to the worst case.

The best scenario is that today’s youth eventually leave the pandemic behind and adjust to normal life. The worst-case scenario, especially for those who “will never catch up,” is an increase in violence (as with the swarm case) and an increase in the number of people ill-suited for employment.

In short, are we facing a rage wave in the future?

Additional Reading

• The Rise of the Hostility Era
• The End of My Break fall Career
• Balintawak Seminar
• Pandemic Solo Training
• Rebooting The Blog

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