go postal

Understanding Bob Dylanをまだ読み終えていませんが、先日丸善に立ち寄った時に目についたEMOTIONAL FIRST AIDを買ってしまったので、並行して読むことにしました。
Severe and repeated experiences of rejection can elicit the kind of aggression that goes far beyond the realm of white noise or hot sauce. When psychological wounds of this nature are left untreated they quickly become "infected" and threaten serious damage to a person's mental health. Stories of injurious and self-injurious aggressive behaviors following rejections are frequently in the news. Jilted lovers who seek revenge, fired postal workers who..."go postal," and the terrible epidemic of bullied children who take their own lives are just a few such examples of what happens when the psychological wounds caused by chronic and severe rejections remain untreated,
首になった郵便局員が "go postal" とは如何に？　どこかで見覚えのある表現ですが思いだせません。引用符で囲まれているので郵便とは直接関係のない特別な意味があるに違いありません。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Become crazed and violent, especially as the result of stress.: I guess there's no use in screaming for help since I doubt our friends have gone postal and are out to kill us.
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: to become very angry and do something violent: The man went postal and shot twelve of his colleagues.
語源が気になりますね。次の辞書に説明がありました。
・Cambridge Idioms Dictionary: to suddenly become violent or angry I don't think anybody is going to come in to work and go postal on me.
Etymology: based on an event in which an employee of the US Postal Service shot and killed other workers
ほんの一人の人間のお陰で他の郵便に従事する人にとっては迷惑な表現ですね。