Opinion | Both Beijing and Hong Kong need therapy

When emotions run high, no one expects rational discussion. When emotions are over-the-top high, we should expect the unexpected. So those who were hoping for some relief after the July 1 march - thought to be an opportunity for people to "let off steam" - have underestimated the force of the emotions.

Events since that day show that they've yet to run their course. From a sermon that elicited vitriol to another man of the cloth calling a critic "a dog", they tell us that the storm rages on, and we're in the path of more damage. There is hatred so vile that we're looking for blood.

There is no better time to ask ourselves, honestly, whether we need to cool down. The answer should be clear: cooler heads must prevail if we're going to survive this, wherever one stands on the political divide.

Is the chief executive the root of this city's problems? If so, is it the office, or the person with the title? If the problem was Leung Chun-ying, then the solution would be simple. But it's not just Leung; it's the office. It has suffered a crisis of legitimacy from the start. The problem is the system - it has produced three chief executives so far who cannot do any right.

The need to change the system is clear, but as we have seen from how little ground we've covered in constitutional reform, it isn't as simple as it sounds.

Rational discussion and compromise - the very essentials that make politics work - are needed now more than ever, to replace all the deafening histrionics and hysteria.

But that's not the only reason we've been blown off course. A lot of other things have been pulled into that emotional vortex, including the State Council's white paper on "one country, two systems".