There seems to have been a real ramping-up lately of the stupid in these parts. I notice it most in how aggressively people are driving…it’s been bad, even for around here. I see it in the customers at work, too. Tempting to blame it on the economy (or the perception of the economy, anyway), but it feels angrier and more all-encompassing than that. It’s not the kind of angry that makes you stomp out of a room; it’s the kind of angry that makes you stomp out of a room without noticing that the door’s closed until you stomp into it.

I think it’s the election.

And I don’t think it’s *this* election. I think people were even crankier last time, in a we-really-loathe-the-other-guy sort of way. I think it’s elections in general.

I think it’s the reminder that to a degree that grows greater all the time, we allow other people to determine the course of our lives for us. We live in fear of what idiot thing the 51% will do to us next, and it gets under our skin. There is something in the human spirit that recoils from such a conditional brand of freedom, and we hate our fellow men for it, knowing that they can vote away the things we hold dear.

Why the hell this inspires people to ever more fervent campaigning and an ever-increasing idealization of voting, I don’t know. A call to anarchy would be more logical.