Anger has become a major factor for committing crime in today’s society, from road rage to domestic violence and other violent crimes, people’s aggression seems to be constantly out of control. Other than teaching people how to control their anger, it is also society’s responsibility to work on the causes to reduce aggression in today’s world.

Recently, a video of a fight between a McDonald’s employee and customer in Las Vegas went viral online. According to the New York Post, the video begins with a female customer throwing a milkshake at the employee as she walked towards the customer, the customer then grabbed a tray and used it to beat the employee. 

The employee later threw the customer around and said, “My momma ain’t dead, you respect my momma.” According to the uploader, the customer tried to get a free soda with a water cup, but the employee, also suggested to be a supervisor, shut down the soda machine.

The supervisor failed to act as a role-model for other employees by fighting the customer. The aggressive attitude that both parties displayed in this incident led to the violent scene.

The video of a fight between a McDonald's employee and a female customer went viral recently. The video uploader suggested the fight took place in McDonald restaurant branch in Las Vegas. (Photo: Screenshot of the uploaded video)

According to a CNN report, a man named Jeremy Webster shot several people outside a business complex in Westminster, Colorado in June – killing one young boy and leaving several people in critical condition.

The Westminster Police Department arrested the suspect and said the incident was likely caused by road rage. 

According to an article published in driversed.com, 50 percent of drivers turned aggressive after having been treated aggressively by other drivers. The article also suggested that 94 percent of car crashes are caused by human errors and about one third of these accidents can be linked to road rage, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Furthermore, over two-thirds of road rage incidents involve firearms.

Rage in today’s society cannot be explained away by simply saying “that person is just like that,” and it is not an easy feat to know exactly where anger and aggression in society comes from. Being aggressive is actually related to one’s environment, family, education, and many other factors. 

If one’s environment can shape a person into an aggressor – then that is something that society is responsible for.

In the McDonald’s video, it is definitely wrong for the employee to fight the customer, but going beyond the ideals of right or wrong, the cause of the act is rather thought-provoking.

At the start of the video, the customer prepared herself for a fight and enters into the altercation purely because she wanted to fight – she had no intention of de-escalating the situation.

The customer was the aggressor in that situation for three reasons – she was expecting to fight with someone over her actions, she refused to obey the restaurant’s rules, and she was the first to strike since she threw a milkshake at the employee and also hit her with a food tray.

Though the customer appears to be at least 18-years-old, she acts like she does not understand or care about society’s social standards of how to act in public. She was acting completely out of line by using poor language, provoking fights, and demanding special treatment by ignoring basic restaurant rules.

From a legal aspect, we expect everyone to follow society’s laws thanks to the public school system instilling a sense of morality and lawfulness in everyone. However, we have all met unreasonable customers like the one in the video – which is proof that some people only want to act aggressively in many situations. 

Society needs to figure out what causes people to act aggressively and resist social order in order to fix the problem. In the case of the McDonald’s customer – the police should look into her environment, family, and schooling to see what went wrong. Society needs to act like an inspection agency to solve this negative phenomenon. 

(Photo: angermanagementonline.com)

People live in a society that requires cooperation in many aspects, which brings more difficulties and constantly places people edge. Moreover, the impact of information technology also puts a strain on people to act quickly and harshly

According to an article published in Time magazine, the country is responsible for the society’s aggression. The article suggests that individuals from low-income backgrounds benefit from globalization since they can enjoy low priced goods and a living wage. Middle class families, however, pay high taxes but receive fewer benefits and can therefore feel left out. This is the cause of class contradictions in the US.

Moreover, middle class stress is increased with problems such as rising housing prices, high credit and student load debt, uneven educational resources, reduced public welfare, and high taxes. This means that millions of people are struggling to make a living and that leaves them feeling worn out and trapped with their emotions.

If we are talking about a negative trend that involves millions of people – individual people cannot solve this problem, it needs to be solved by everyone in society. That is why society should be aware of the aggression phenomenon, because everyone needs to help in order to create a solution to solve our anger problems.