Rudeness

When did it become fashionable to be rude? I grew up in a small town in Wyoming and although there were many things not so right with the morals of the people I grew up around, at least they were friendly and didn’t act like they had a huge corncob stuck up their respective asses. When I walked down the street people looked at me and smiled and said hi and acted like they were genuinely concerned about me and glad that they had seen me that day. My father used to tip his hat at every woman he passed, whether he had a hat on or not. I never figured out if that was him just being nice, or his womanizing disability. Nowadays, you’re lucky if you get someone to look up from the screen that they are texting on. Yet, that has only happened recently.

Three or four years ago when everyone wasn’t texting, they might have been talking on their phone, but they were still usually looking down at their feet. And, even before cell phones became so popular, people still looked at their feet. I used to wonder what the fascination was with everyone’s feet. I’ve seen my feet hundreds of times, I can walk on a sidewalk without looking down, why do people stare at their feet when you encounter them? Not to mention that there used to be these booths on corners and in front of stores all over the country that contained phones in them. They were in booths for two reasons, one, for privacy, and two, so I didn’t have to stand there and listen to your conversation because it’s rude. But, I digress.

I went back to college in my late thirties to finish my bachelor’s degree and had firsthand experience with how the younger generations treated each other and the people around them. For the most part, they were still respectful to most authority figures. They would call their professors by their appropriate titles when they addressed them. Not so much when they were talking about them with each other. And, well, they had some manors, but it could have just as well been a big front. I certainly didn’t get deep into the belly of the college beast. I wasn’t allowed because of my age. Most everyone was nice to me and I made quite a few friends. Friends I’m sad to say, lost touch all too quickly after graduation. Which makes me think that they behaved differently around me than they did amongst themselves. But, back to my point. Even though they acted nice for the most part, there wasn’t a day that went by where I wasn’t appalled at what someone did or said. And many times, these were the people that I just referred to as my friends. These were my cohorts, too.

I wonder where manors went? When did they become extinct? Because, really, when I pass you on the street and you completely ignore me as if I’m not even there, I want to tell you to go fuck yourself. I want to ask you, “who made you so special that you think you can just completely ignore another member of the human race?” Of course, I know all about the fundamental attribution error. That person could have any number of things going on with their lives. Perhaps, their mother just died or their spouse just asked them for a divorce. I know that some people have bona fide excuses for being rude, but you can’t tell me that 95% of all people I meet on the street have the same kind of excuse for their sad actions.

I suppose the problem has hundreds of different contributing factors, and I could spend a lifetime trying to research and dissect the problem. I just want people to understand that the planet is getting smaller and smaller every day. As long as the birth rate is higher than the death rate, there is going to be less and less space for all of us to live. We are all going to be forced to see more and more of each other on a daily basis. So, I ask you to please make eye contact with the people you pass on the street and smile at them. Pay it forward. It’s the only way that this planet is going to be a place worth living on. We all simply have to be nice to each other. We all have to take care of each other. We all have to step back and decide which is more important; selfishness, or the environment in which our kids are going to grow up in? Our kids, their kids, their kids’ kids, and so on. No one, not even the people that actually own land, have the right to treat it any which way they want to. It’s the same with public spaces. No one has the right to be an ass when they are present in a public space. I’m trying to raise my kids right. I don’t know about your problems, but I bet they aren’t much different than mine. So, get over yourself.

Maybe it’s just me. I don’t know. To be honest, I don’t like too many people, as you may have guessed, but I do care about other people. I think that everyone has certain inalienable rights and since everyone’s space is starting to overlap everyone else’s, you have to be a bit more careful what you do, because you just might be treading on someone else’s rights. It’s not tolerance we should be striving for, it’s cohesiveness. Humanity must eventually come together and act as one. I believe that we can all have one set of morals. That we can all treat each other as we would like to be treated. With respect, with courtesy, with kindness, with care. I believe that there are certain human attributes ingrained in all of us that would allow this to happen. We all know what to do, we just choose not to because we are all so busy ignoring each other, that we don’t see outside of our living rooms anymore, or in this case, the tops of our shoes. Ignorance is not bliss, it is downright criminal. Be nice, people. I guarantee you’ll feel better because you will be making a difference.