Does it seem to you like people have shorter fuses these days?  Have you noticed people are losing their tempers more quickly, frequently and over smaller things?  A lawyer hung up on me the other day. That’s certainly not the first time, and won’t be the last, but I was only halfway through my second sentence when she hung up.  And they weren’t long sentences.

Divorce in The Crazy Years

Divorce is always stressful, and divorce litigation is a form of civilized combat. But I’ve noticed recently that people are forgetting the the civilized part. People are losing it. They are short-tempered, impatient, disrespectful, and rude. What is going on?

I believe the stress of current events is driving people bonkers. This is the beginning of what science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein calls The Crazy Years in his future histories.

The Headlines Are Driving Us Crazy

I’ll tick off the news headlines this morning while you check your blood pressure:

• Covid changed our lives, sent us home, killed 750,000 of us, shut down our businesses, schools, events, social life, travel and the economy, and left us arguing about masks, vaccines, unproven “cures”, and social distancing.
• Epic floods, fires, earthquakes. droughts, hurricanes, mudslides, cyclone bombs, melting ice caps, and other extreme  climate catastrophes as a result of global warming.
• Wealth inequality, soul-crushing student debt, Inadequate child care and elder care, crumbling infrastructure, rising prices for food, shelter, and transportation.
• Fights over women’s rights, gun rights, voting rights, critical race theory, increasing violence in our cities, and hostile, angry encounters on airplanes, and school board meetings and our capital., and a gridlocked congress.
• A former, and possibly future, president who has legitimized and popularized the big lie, insults, name-calling. boorish and immoral behavior, revenge, avarice, disrespect for our constitution, laws, traditions, system of checks and balances, the free press, our nation’s heroes, and who promotes lawlessness, violence and insurrection.

You can see why people are feeling stretched to the breaking point.

One More Turn

It reminds me of those balsa-wood model airplanes we used to play with as children. We turned that red plastic propeller to wind  the rubber-band motor as tight as we could so it would fly high and long. So here we stand with nerves and spines as tense and twisted as that rubber band.  We are ready to soar high and long.  But if one more person turns our propeller even a little bit, we may snap and go spiraling onto the the roof.

[Author’s Note:  Our law firm philosophy is that a constructive approach to cases, and a respectful approach to clients, lawyers, and opposing spouses in divorce cases best serves our clients.  We fight fire with water.]