Page 292 - The Social Animal

274 The Social Animal

Suppose, after graduating from high school, I choose not to pur-
sue a higher education and you choose to be educated. Ten years
later, if I notice that you have a better job than I do, I may be un-
happy with my job but I will not experience frustration. After all, I
made a free choice, and this outcome is the reasonable consequence
of my choice. But if we’ve both been educated, and you have a white-
collar job and I (because I’m African American or Hispanic) am
handed a broom, I will feel frustrated. Similarly, if you find it easy to
get an education but because I grew up in an impoverished ghetto an
education is denied me, I will also feel frustrated. This frustration
will be exacerbated every time I turn on the television and see all
those beautiful houses white people live in, and all those lovely ap-
pliances for sale to other people, and all that gracious living and
leisure I cannot share. When you consider all the economic and so-
cial frustrations faced by members of underprivileged groups in this
affluent society, it is surprising that there are so few riots. As Alexis
de Tocqueville wrote more than 150 years ago, “Evils which are pa-
tiently endured when they seem inevitable, become intolerable once
the idea of escape from them is suggested.” 59
As long as there is hope that is unsatisfied, there will be frustra-
tions that can result in aggression. Aggression can be reduced by sat-
isfying that hope, or it can be minimized by eliminating it. Hopeless
people are apathetic people. The Ugandans, when they were under
the tyrannical, repressive, and wantonly violent dictatorship of Idi
Amin, dared not dream of improving conditions or rebelling against
Amin’s rule.The South African blacks, and to some extent the blacks
in the United States, did not revolt as long as they were prevented
from hoping for anything better. Clearly, eliminating people’s hope
is an undesirable means of reducing aggression. The saving grace of
our nation is that—theoretically, at least—this is a land of promise.
We teach our children, explicitly and implicitly, to hope, to expect,
and to work to improve their lives. But unless this hope stands a rea-
sonable chance of being fulfilled, turmoil will be inevitable.

Rejection, Exclusion, and Taunting A few years ago, at
Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, two students (Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold), armed to the teeth and very angry, went
on a rampage, killing a teacher and 14 students (including them-
selves). It was the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history.
But it was not unique. It was merely the most dramatic and most