Control

We get irritated more quickly when we don't have control. We consider loud noises and bad smells more of a nuisance because unlike sights, tastes, and feeling, we can't get away from them as easily. We get angrier at a person playing music too loud or revving a truck or a motorcycle. It's not just the volume. I can't stand the sound of a vacuum cleaner or a leaf blower - when someone else is controlling when it goes on and off.  When I'm vacuuming the sound doesn't bother me at all.

It can be hard to be a passenger when someone else is doing the exploring at their whim and choosing the route. But when I've got the wheel, it's fun. Something of this comes into politics, where we are more tolerant of power being wielded by someone we perceive as "one of ours." This can be almost ridiculous when we look at it objectively, as our own kinsman or class member might be demanding much more of us, but we mind it less. And when the amount we pay or volunteer or put up with is entirely in our own control we can be quite generous and easy.

It's obvious as a general rule but we often don't perceive it in specific cases. It does cause me to wonder at how miserable most lives must have been, particularly in non-American places, until quite recently. Nearly everyone was under the command of someone else and had no say in what time the work started or what was for lunch or even who they would marry. We can travel where we will or choose our profession - not a universal privilege in history or even in the 21st C - but perhaps because we are so used to having control and having our own way we are easily upset when someone else puts their quarter in the jukebox and...hey, there's a song about that.

But it applies more generally, the jukebox angle was supposed to be just an entertaining small example.