Monday, November 23, 2009

Civility

What is going on in our society?

I was raised, and my chosen career, makes it akin to a mortal sin to knowingly, and deliberately cause someone else to be delayed or inconvenienced in whatever it is they're doing.

It appears that I am alone.

I sit at a stop sign, on my way to work, and the pedestrians in the cross walk not only don't speed up, they deliberately, and visibly slow down. Looking at me like they are challenging me to hit them.

I drive on the freeway, I am driving slightly faster than the rest of traffic, though I am still being occasionally passed by someone wanting to go faster than I. I move to the right when faster traffic comes up behind me, but many people stay in the left lane as I approach them, even though there is no one in the right lane. Sometimes they deliberately slow down in front of me.

I sit, waiting to turn left out of the parking lot at the grocery store where I just spent a few hours worth of my paycheck; I wait for the traffic coming from my right, and they turn into the parking lot. Gee, the auto manufacturer's should make some sort of an external indicator, a "turn signal," if you will, to let me know that it was okay for me to go, since you were turning in to the same parking lot I was trying to leave. Then, when I register my irritation, I get "flipped off." If you would have expended that energy flipping the switch by your left hand, rather than flipping me off because you caused me deliberate inconvenience, wouldn't the world be a better place?

You go through the door into the store in front of me and my family, you see me and know I'm there, yet you let the door close in my wife's face.

I'm not sure what's going on in our society. I can't help but wonder where this "my life is far more important than yours" attitude starts, but I'm very tired of it.

1 comment:

Hot Sam said...

You just described a typical day in San Francisco, except the inconsiderate behavior isn't merely annoying, it's dangerous to human lives and property.

Anti-social behavior is commonplace and passively accepted.