Are people getting ruder, or is it only in airports?
Traveling in the northeast today, I find myself aghast at the lack of common courtesy extended to both fellow passengers and myself by those providing service and security in the airport. A TSA agent actually physically touched me without any warning or indication – I almost jumped out of my skin! I’m as game as anyone to undergo the many indignities we’re forced to when traveling by plane (seriously – we don’t have technology that can tell that my sunglasses are safe, for hell’s sake?) – but invade my personal space without permission and you have definitely crossed the boundaries of acceptable behavior.
So I poise the question – is this symptomatic of the direction we’re headed as a society? Or is this unique to the tri-state area where people pride themselves on their aggression? Long gone of course are the days when the rules of society were so proscribed that from the moment of your birth you had an associated life plan – and I am grateful for that. I’m also not so ignorant to think that people were generally nicer or kinder then v. now. I just think there’s something to be said for offering your fellow man a modicum of common courtesy, and we’re getting too lax for our own good.
And while I’m on the topic – when we’re in public, out among each other, we should be on better behavior than in our living rooms…and yes, I am specifically referencing every man and woman who adjusts their gender-specific areas in public. When did it become acceptable for a man to reposition himself or a woman to readjust ‘the ladies’ while walking through a crowded hall? Did I just miss that memo? Or maybe I just got old?
So tell me, O Great Online – is it all of us or just me? Where have all the polite people gone?
Overly Honest 