Smash therapy for nation on edge

It’s no surprise that, in present-day South Africa, a Pretoria woman has built a business which is booming – and bashing and thrashing – because of everyday anger.

Lydia Pieterse charges people to take out their frustrations by attacking and smashing inanimate objects in what she calls the “rage room”.

The idea is that the expression of violent rage in a controlled environment will be cathartic for those indulging in the exercise and that, hopefully, the desire for mindless anger will have been satisfied.

In so doing, of course, there is the additional hope that the malign forces will be spent on objects and not on people.

Pieterse’s approach is an acknowledgement that human nature being what it is, some people are disinclined to “talk things through”… or that no matter how reasonable a person is, the other side is always not listening.

We reckon a great idea to reduce simmering national anger in South Africa would be to put politicians and civil servants who take bribes or talk rubbish into a new form of medieval stocks – from where they could be pelted with rotten fruit and vegetables.

However, there might be a problem, building enough stocks and finding sufficient ammunition for the culprits.

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