HOW I SEE IT: Bad manners have reached a new low
Published: September 17, 2009
Some people can’t get over the changes that have occurred in our society during the last 50 years. They feel like their world has been turned upside down, and they try to find the cause of all the changes but can’t.
It is not just the physical changes that shock them the most — these are understandable, such as the growth of cities, the communications technology, the speed of travel, space exploration, the advances in medicine and the digital age, to name a few.
But it is the people changes that are most disturbing: It is the lack of civility and respect for others.
Most people today don’t seem to care about anything that does not affect them directly — they appear to enjoy sounds and noise that are not even remotely connected to or similar to music. It is as though they want to drown out everything around them and retreat to a bubble all of their own making — a bubble where they can not be reached.
Many seem to live in a state of suspended animation where they don’t have to be part of anything, where they do not have to get involved in anythin. It is a careless existence with no purpose in life.
Smoking, drinking and doing drugs, incessantly manipulating electronic gadgets, are an accepted pastime; it is all part of the great escape or disconnection with society.
Many pay no attention to anything because they outright reject potential influences that conversations or news articles and/or commentary may contain — they want a total break with the past and old people. They don’t want to know history or geography, and some don’t even know the place they were born or the date in which they were born.
Public behavior has reached a new low, and it does not matter where it occurs — the House of Representatives, a tennis court, TV show, restaurant; university classroom, courthouse, church, airplane, train, doctor’s office or hospital waiting room, public road or park. Such bad behavior is annoying and disrespectful and has no place in society where good manners and decorum are expected to be the norm.
Some evade situations and places where rudeness and bad behavior cause them discomfort, while others ignore those around them, which is difficult to do when loudness and bad behavior is so bad it becomes impossible to ignore.
Americans used to be known as a very polite and well behaved people; that is no longer the case, and predominant bad behavior does not auger well for America, where rude strangers are becoming the norm.
Advertisement
Reader Reactions
The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn’t angry enough. ~Bede Jarrett
Aristotle:
Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power, that is not easy.
EXCUSE ME? You really have alot of nerve. You really do have a twisted mind. You have no respect for anyone or their circumstances. You should be the last person to comment on manners at all Mrs.
I do not believe I have ever incountered anyone with such ignorant remarks.
terra…are you sick????
Anger used for the right purpose can be a good thing. I am sorry you think you can blab your opinions all over the place but when someone oposes you it is bad anger and being rude. Treating others with discrimination is the worst manners of all. And deserves much more than a simple “jerk” remark. I am sorry it touched you so, maybe you should look within yourself and ask why. It makes me extremly angry to see people downed for simply being different and yes that hits me very close. I am the mother of a disabled child and take it personaly. The issue of this topic included remarks about smokers and “the things people listened to were not even music” and other things that had no relavence to manners and then added was overweight people.. And I am the rude one here? What makes you think you have the right to judge?
REALLY!!!! What does all this have to do with manners,,,Good or Bad, except, maybe, to prove the author’s point!!!!!
terra,I don’t know to whom your remarks were directed but reread what you wrote..Was it full of good manners? Calling people names is NOT good manners. I really don’t understand why it always comes to this. I’ve been called more names in these forums than I’ve ever been called in my life and I’ve given as good as I got. Then I decided to consider the sources and let it go. It is really hard to do that, I know. I don’t know, either, why you are so angry, but, speaking of hatred, your’s really shows in your postings. Have you been taking lessons from some other posters who seem to know more about every subject than the rest of us put together?
You both are sad people…I would rather not be able to put my apostrophes in the right places than be a hypocritical, discriminatory JERK adding to the hate already in the world.
Why don’t you go live in one of those other countries where you are told what to do instead of being able to choose for yourself. And of course being overweight contributes to health issues so does alot of other things that we are all guilty of ...so does that mean overweight people do not contribute to our society? And no you did not hit my nerve localdad..I am not the least bit overweight as you said you are. But I do have friends that are, and they are wonderful people,wonderful parents, and GREAT FRIENDS. I think the point here is we have the freedom to eat,enjoy,listen,read and be who we want and should be proud of that. Bad manners are a terrible thing that is usually the fault of upbringing or a careless person. There is no excuse not to care about others feelings and use simple please, thank you and excuse me. I am not attacking that at all. But discriminatory remarks about music and freedoms to choose you bet! I find that most people that are hypocritical,have there own issues or have no foundation for what they are saying often search for things like putting apostrophes in there correct places.
I am in a position where I am in contact with young people on a 24 hour basis. These are older teens and early twenties. They are all from affluent families, are all male and highly intelligent. I am constantly shocked by their actions and particularly their language. These words have become an accepted part of their vocabularies. This is completely accepted by family and friends. They are provided alcohol by their parents and I know this is true because I have seen it..According to the state of Virginia this is illegal as most of them are underage. If parents do not set a good example what role models do the kids have? Let’s not be blaming, TV, video games, and fluoride for their shortcomings. The parents think they (the parents)are “cool” for being their kids “best friends”. Baloney!!!! It’s time to stop being a friend and become a parent. No one sets boundaries anymore. It’s more important to give the kids every heart’s desire and defend their actions, no matter what they are. Where I come from (the same place you’re from) it is said, “They ain’t had no raisin’”
Kill the messenger.
DontTread: You may want to take your own advice. For instance, when you attempt to “support” your claims, you might want to actually read your own links to make sure they have any relation to what you’re arguing.
Your first link provides one study, which was criticized by the author’s PhD committee leader, demonstrating some level of correlation between fluoride and bone cancer. A National Research Council study looked at all available evidence on fluoride and osteosarcoma, including Bassin’s work, and concluded that her findings were “tentative and mixed.“ (statement of the CDC available at http://www.cdc.gov/FLUORIDATION/SAFETY/OSTEOSARCOMA.HTM ) Even if we were to accept the study’s conclusions as absolute truth, *that wasn’t your claim*. You argued that “[t]he flouride [sic] in the water decimates IQ.“ How, exactly, do you draw a causal connection between fluoride and damage to IQ?
Your second link is similarly irrelevant to your argument. The Telegraph article cites a study referring to various content on the television, claiming that children’s self-esteem might be damaged, that they might become excessively materialistic, and other similar effects. Again, even if all of these claims are true (and some of them certainly are, if only to a limited extent), they have absolutely zero relation to your argument that the “flciker [sic] rate of the TV . . . is designed to lull you in to a lower state.“
If you want people to take you seriously, perhaps you should document your extraordinary claims with evidence that actually supports them. You could further improve your arguments by refraining from calling people who disagree with you “***ing know-it-all[s]“ immediately before accusing them of “name-calling and finger-pointing.“
Advertisement