I have no idea where this is going, but just felt the need to ponder my own foolishness.

At what point does one lose a battle of common sense and self control? As people ruled by emotion, how do we gauge when the actions we take are the right ones rather than mistakes fueled with irrational anger. I often like to think that I am able to distinguish between nescesasry conflict and stupid ones but its easy to be influenced by emotion you didn't even think related to current situations.
I doubt many people think about how they act on a daily basis but it is interesting to step back and look at the way one has acted in a particular day... we all know the "right" thing to do in most cases but rarely do most people behave the way they themselves want. Take for instance, a drunk lying in a crowed street, how many people would stop and help the unfortunate soul, or walk past and pretend to ignore him.
Unfortunately I find myself in the latter category.. but it doesn't bother me too much since that is what everyone does - its pretty sad to see that acts of compassion are rarities to be admired. Though I seem to be losing track of my original thought, hmm oh yeah... basically why does one make relatively stupid descisions. For myself I think it is out of frustration, so that something that should at worst be mildy annoying turns to be infuriating. It's probably a similar to the reason some people are happy or mean drunks.. does one drink to enjoy the company of others or to forget about the problems life affords.

However that doesn't excuse the consequences of ones own actions, what I often wonder is how do people guage the appropriatness of their actions. Obviously it would be different for a lot of people, some might be following rules or ettiquite, others might just rely on instinct, or maybe its just something you learn through constant interation. Dealing with many different people builds a repetoire of situations and experience in handling them, but ones own perspective determines how they would react based that knowledge... hmm what I think I'm trying to say is that even if two people shared the same experience their own personalities would determine what they learn, and how they will act in the future.