Baldwin-faced tantrums: Is there method to the madness?



Hot Air In Flight (Photo by Jane82)



Most don’t want anything to do with a stomping screaming child, particularly when she’s lying in Aisle 4 of the local supermarket.  Nor do many want anything to do with a recalcitrant adult, particularly when he’s messing with airline rules on a whim.

However, one man’s whim is another man’s logic.  Could it be that the self-serving aspect of anyone’s tantrum can be discovered - then utilized to move things along in a more harmonious fashion?

According to researchers Michael Potegal and James Green, the average childhood tantrum has two distinct phases:  anger - then sadness.  The “anger” phase is characterized by outward aggression, the “sadness” phase by an inner desire for comfort.  Therefore, facilitating emotional movement from “anger” to “sadness” can make the difference between a prolonged battle and a compassionate resolution.

In the journal Emotion, Potegal and Green claimed that “the quickest way past the anger… was to do nothing.” Although this might sometimes take an ear-splitting while (and look rather meek to disgruntled observers), it’s helpful to remember that the meek will allegedly inherit the earth after the aggressors knock each other out of the cosmic ring.

J. Bryan Lowder of Slate, who reported on all this via NPR’s Morning Edition, concludes with the warning that this is “not easy advice to follow, say, on an eight-hour flight.”  This warning seems particularly ironic, given Alec Baldwin’s recent run-in (some might say “tantrum”) on an American Airlines plane bound for nowhere fast (at least for Baldwin, who was subsequently “removed from the flight”).

It seems that when Baldwin was asked to cease playing with one of his favorite “toys” (online game Words With Friends), his inner-child might have decided:  This just isn’t fair – other passengers are still “playing” with their cell phones…  He refused to turn off his phone, stood up (breaking yet another

rule), went off to the lavatory, slammed the door hard, and began calling the crew “inappropriate names and using offensive language.”  The flight was then delayed 45 minutes while the crew (whom Baldwin described as “retired Catholic school gym teachers from the 1950’s”) handled the situation.

Perhaps had they ignored Baldwin’s gaming for just a short while (as they allegedly did with the cell-phone use of lesser-known passengers), all might have gone more smoothly.  Perhaps Baldwin might then have easily moved into his “inner need for comfort” phase of recalcitrance – and simply demanded something deemed “safe” (such as alcohol-laden tranquilizing) by the flighty powers that be.

Baldwin himself, in The Huffington Post piece titled My Flying Lesson, claimed that he was “singled out” by one flight attendant who “decided to make some example of me,”  and therefore “got the better of me.”  It seems that it was this feeling of being unfairly singled out that was pushing on Mr. Baldwin’s last button.

Is it a flight attendant’s job to act empathetically, compassionately, and – at times – mediatively?  Why not –

especially when overall safety seems better served in that manner...

Resources

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2011/12/05/is_there_a_logic_to_childhood_temper_tantrums_.html

http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/12/08/alec-baldwin-open-letter-apology/

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/American-Airlines-Passengers-JFK-Talk-Alec-Baldwin-Removed-Flight-135144903.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantrum

Copyright December 8, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved